Laurie Goldberg and David Cousins were each presented with UKCPA Lifetime Achievement Awards at the UKCPA Autumn Symposium held in Leicester 13–14 November. The awards recognise their sustained contributions to clinical pharmacy.
Laurie Goldberg and David Cousins were each presented with UKCPA Lifetime Achievement Awards at the UKCPA Autumn Symposium held in Leicester 13–14 November. The awards recognise their sustained contributions to clinical pharmacy.
Laurie Goldberg was involved in the UK clinical pharmacy movement from the beginning and, together with Mike Cullen, founded the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association in 1979/80. He was responsible for setting up the first clinical pharmacy practice unit in the UK and he encouraged and supported his staff to present their work at national and international conferences. He also served on the general committee of the European Society for Clinical Pharmacy and ran many clinical pharmacy training courses in European countries.
Laurie Goldberg said, “One of my proudest achievements was serving as a non-executive director of the newly-formed National Patient Safety Agency. My first task was to argue for the appointment of a pharmacist to lead medication error initiatives – and I am proud to have chaired the panel that appointed David Cousins to that post”.
UKCPA Chair, Ann Page, said, “Laurie Goldberg has spent a lifetime practising and promoting clinical pharmacy and, more importantly, ensuring that the funding, structure and opportunities were in place for young clinical pharmacists to flourish”.
David Cousins ran a progressive pharmacy service at Derby Royal Infirmary, before taking up his appointment at the National Patient Safety Agency. He established one of the first comprehensive intravenous additive services and broke new ground by making clinical pharmacists members of cardiac arrest teams. He played a leading role in raising awareness of medication safety and, together with Dr David Upton, he wrote a regular column on medication errors for many years. As Head of Medication Safety at the National Patient Safety Agency he was responsible for publishing many ‘alerts’ including landmark documents on improving the safety of injectable medicines and improving the safety of neuraxial injections.
David Cousins said, “UKCPA has always been there for me – a source of support and inspiration”. He said that discussions with the UKCPA Quality Assurance Group had first given him the idea of Medication Safety Officers.
