Aarti Patel retires as CCPG General Manager

Aarti studied pharmacy in South Africa in the 1980s. She has since worked in community and hospital pharmacy, rural community health teams, for a pharmaceutical company, as a university lecturer, on global initiatives, as a pharmacy co-owner and, most recently, as General Manager of the Canterbury Community Pharmacy Group. She also met her husband through the profession.

Aarti Patel’s career is an exemplar of the wide range of opportunities available to pharmacy graduates.

Over more than 40 years Aarti has observed big changes in the profession. When she did her undergraduate study only eight of 24 students were female. In recent years, in part because of the COVID pandemic, the role and scope of pharmacists has grown immensely. As has recognition from the health system of community pharmacy’s integral role in the primary care sector and caring for people in their community.

Aarti says on graduating she was fortunate to work in integrated teams with a focus on improving access to care, specifically in rural and vulnerable communities, including pharmacists, nurses and doctors. One such experience was with the health train, a university-led initiative where allied health teams of pharmacists, optometrists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists delivered services to remote communities.

Aarti started her career in the pharmaceutical industry and went on to become a research intern with the Health Systems Trust in the late nineties where her Master’s degree explored the role of pharmacists in primary health care and how, in South Africa, they support integrated district-based health teams providing services for communicable diseases like TB, malaria, HIV-AIDs, alongside non-communicable diseases and childhood illnesses.

With this diverse early experience, Aarti became the chief pharmacist for the Essential Medicines Programme in a province in South Africa.

“At the time there were lots of changes in South Africa and lots of exposure to politics. With democracy health became a big issue. Having worked as part of a medical and allied health team in rural areas and doing a Masters in the area, this informed my thinking and sparked a passion for collaboration rather than working in silos.”

In 2000 Aarti’s mother was murdered. This shook her ‘to her foundation’ and severely impacted her two young children to fellow pharmacist Ajay, who she met at university.  She began to think about roles outside of South Africa.

For a year or so Aarti worked at a polytechnic teaching nurses, who were able to prescribe a range of medicines, on the safe use of these drugs.

She also had the chance to work on projects such as the World Health Organisation’s Health Action International pricing project and its impact on access to medicines. Through this work a medicines pricing tool was developed collaboratively with universities, the World Health Organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and the Centre for Disease Control’s Healthcare-Associated Infections programme that is now used to assess related policies in developing countries.

“The affordability aspect of this study was fascinating to me. How, for example, the lowest paid worker in a developing country might have to work for several days just to afford a generic brand medicine they need to be well. I saw clearly how politics can impact population health.”

With this passion for system change, and a desire to explore opportunities beyond South Africa, Aarti applied for a job as a lecturer at the University of Otago. She and her family moved to Dunedin in 2003.

Between 2003 and 2009 Aarti taught pharmacy students and did her PhD. Her thesis was around the concept of quality of medicines at a time when counterfeit and substandard medicines were gaining a foothold in countries and impacting care. Aarti says she enjoyed the research which brought together policy, pharmaceutical and social sciences.

As a lecturer Aarti says she loved seeing students become passionate about the profession and its possibilities.

She says there is still a gap in education relating to community pharmacy where ‘so much happens’.

“Community pharmacy is far wider than dispensing. That goes on in the background, but there is a lot of interaction with other health professionals supporting people as they navigate their wellbeing journey in the community, including around discharges from hospital and in population health with vaccinations, education and information.

Another big challenge for the sector is a drop in the number of pharmacy and pharmacy technician students.

“It’s going to be a massive challenge and workforce issue but an opportunity for innovation to ensure the positive evolution of the profession in New Zealand.”

In 2009, after lecturing and completing her PhD at the University of Otago, Aarti took up a role as a technical advisor to the Southern African Development Community’s pharmaceutical programme. Based in in Botswana she worked with the 15 member states supporting regional programmes on regulatory harmonisation, workforce and pooled procurement. She returned to live in New Zealand in 2013 and worked virtually with an international health consulting company, hera, based in Belgium.

In 2016 she successful applied for a role as General Manager for the Canterbury Community Pharmacy Group.

An early key initiative was community pharmacists taking ownership of the medication management service, which previously operated as a mobile service.

“This was a key move as it meant pharmacists - who already knew their patients - could support them in a better way than via the one-off mobile service.”

When COVID hit ‘we fought hard’ says Aarti.

“Pharmacists were chomping at the bit to get a seat at the (health sector) table.

“Canterbury was one of the first regions in New Zealand to have pharmacists administering vaccinations.”

Greater integration of community pharmacy into the primary health care sector continued post COVID with a ‘very committed and passionate group of pharmacists in the region who are not siloed in their practice’.

“CCPG looks at things from a systems level as well as advocating for pharmacy so it means we are ever extending the scope of pharmacy and how we can benefit our communities.”

Aarti says at community level pharmacists see people when they are well and in poor health.

“We get to meet their families and get to see their health over time, and this puts us in a great situation to provide an important part of their ongoing health care.”

Working in community pharmacy also means working with some of society’s most disadvantaged as they often come to the pharmacy for methadone or minor ailments even if they are not enrolled in a general practice.

“The cost of health care is unaffordable for many and community pharmacy is an access point for people and a way the health system can provide for them.”

Aarti believes there is still a low level of appreciation for what pharmacy – in particular community pharmacy - contributes to the health system and, more importantly, what it is capable of.

“We know community pharmacy is amazing and hopefully others are coming to see this too. We need to get better at telling our story and celebrating our place.”