Challenges and rewards as a PCN pharmacist: Steve Williams on the “major task”
- 17 Mar 2026
Steve Williams, MRPharmS, Senior Clinical Pharmacist at Poole Bay & Bournemouth Primary Care Network (PCN), says the PCN pharmacist’s major task is delivering medicines optimisation stewardship at scale - across multiple practices, teams and patient populations.
He describes the role as broad and operational as well as clinical, covering everything from repeat prescribing systems and audits to high-risk medicines and antimicrobial stewardship.
For Mr Williams, one of the key challenges is making PCN pharmacy work in a sustainable, integrated way - ensuring the right skill mix and leadership is in place, and avoiding destabilising other parts of the system by simply pulling staff from secondary care or community pharmacy.
The reward is meaningful clinical impact: tackling problematic polypharmacy and improving medicines use where it can prevent avoidable harm - with pharmacists positioned as a necessity within primary care, not a luxury.
Watch or listen to the full interview with Steve Williams here.
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