Making pharmacies more inclusive

A programme of events rethinking the architecture of community pharmacies, with the aim of making them more accessible and welcoming, is being held over the next two weeks in east London. It’s part of a research project involving Professor Kate Allen of the University of East London’s Rix Centre, which seeks to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities.

The project, led by Dr Ranjita Dhital at University College London (UCL) examines how pharmacies can become more inclusive. That’s important because community pharmacies are the healthcare spaces most often visited by the public. They also play an increasingly important part in healthcare provision, with recent changes to government policy seeing pharmacists, rather than GPs, providing treatments for several common health conditions.

All the events will take place at the Bromley by Bow Centre (opens in new window), as part of the Architecture of Pharmacies: Counter Culture Exhibition. The exhibition is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2024. It aims to show new possibilities for healthy, inclusive, and people-centred community pharmacies, based on the work carried out at UCL and elsewhere.  

That work has involved a multidisciplinary team, including pharmacist advisors, mental health nurse-researchers, architects and researchers from the University of Bristol, City, University of London, King’s College London and UCL.

The first stage of the project involved completing a comprehensive review of existing literature concerning how community pharmacy spaces are experienced by pharmacy service users and staff. Professor Allen has heavily involved in this part of the research, working with Samantha Walker of purpleSTARS, an organisation which brings together people with and without learning disabilities and differences to make public spaces more inclusive. 

Their aim was to include the diverse voices of people with the lived experience of learning differences and disabilities in the research process, enabling pharmacies to become more inclusive and engaging for such groups.