Jen Postlethwaite
BCM Specials
Why are we ethical?
Our business is run by Pharmacists that have an ethical approach at the heart of everything they do. BCM has a very comprehensive and well-supported corporate social responsibility policy that covers four key areas: community, environment, work place and marketplace and we operate to quality and financial standards that exceed minimum regulatory requirements.
Our community volunteer activity is focused on ways in which we can work both as individuals and in groups to support local people and help bring about change for the better. We regularly release staff volunteers, for example, to help support young readers in our local primary school. They sit with pupils aged 5 – 11, who might need extra help or benefit from one to one support with their reading.
Working as a group BCM Specials staff have organised coffee mornings, sponsored walks and cricket matches to raise money for local and national healthcare and children’s charities. For example, last year we donated money to a Bristol NHS Trust NICU so that they could buy extra development equipment not normally available on the NHS, such as snuggles, donut head pads, buggies and ipods. New mothers are using the ipods to record their voice and this is played to their baby in the unit when they are not there.
One member of our team has also climbed the three peaks to raise money to support a local charity that helps children to find an adoptive family. We then matched their fundraising from our corporate ‘Match the Difference Fund’.
We have been very pleased with the results we have been able to achieve as part of our ongoing environmental policy. Our waste glass goes to recycling, avoiding the need to add to the landfill burden. In fact, in our building over the last four years overall recycling has increased by 15% and landfill reduced by 18%. Our continued focus on reduction of energy consumption has also resulted in our being able to reduce our electricity consumption by 25% over four years.
At BCM we have a very active workplace programme and are committed to continued investment in the wellbeing, training and development of our people. The “hand-made” nature of our work can throw up some issues for staff ergonomically speaking, for example, and we are continually looking to invest in semi automation and small scale manufacture devices that we can bring in to ease these and minimise harm to our staff.
We set rigorous health and safety targets and make strenuous efforts to train and engage our staff in the proactive approach that we take. Our health and safety committee representatives operate staff forums where concerns can be aired and appropriate action agreed upon, and staff actively participate a process whereby colleagues observe a task and provide advice on whether it is being carried out safely or not.
The fact that we have had no work related major or lost time accidents in our business for about 5 years is indicative of the success of our approach.
Why are we standard setting?
At BCM we adopt the attitude that making unlicensed medicines (individually produced to an unpredictable need) does not mean that we should compromise on our standards. In the actual manufacturing of a bespoke Special, BCM makes no differentiation between the rigorous standards of a licensed medicine, which may be made in the hundreds of thousands, and a one off “hand made” Special.
One of the things that drives us to aim for the same high manufacturing standards as those which apply to licensed medicines is the fact that we share a facility in which licensed medicines are made and therefore benefit from their knowledge of what constitutes best practice in, for example, implementation of information systems, standards, procedures and processes. The teams that support the licensed facility, such as independent experts in quality assurance and engineering, also support BCM Specials, adding to the impetus that ensures that our standards remain of the highest order.
Like all ACSM members, BCM holds a Specials Manufacturing Licence issued by MHRA. In addition, we hold an Investigational Medicinal Products Licence (for manufacture of medicines in the early stages of development to be subjected to clinical trials), and a Wholesalers Dealers licence, all of which mean that our facility is regularly audited by MHRA. The customers for whom we carry out clinical trials manufacture also carry out regular audits and our own QA team also audits our facility for compliance to standards.
BCM do not just comply with the Orange Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice, but aim to go beyond that with whatever we ascertain is best practice. Attendance of conferences and seminars, membership of industry organisations and engagement in professional networks all help BCM to identify what the highest standards are across our industry and we are actively involved in promoting these through membership, for example of the ACSM, which now has its own Code of Conduct.
Why are we useful to Society?
At the end of the day we are making medicines to make people better, literally making to demand. By using our decades long expertise to tailor a formulation to a one off specification we are able to let the patient have a treatment that is exactly right for them and best meets their needs.
Because we know that when a Pharmacist calls through a prescription there is nearly always a patient waiting to get his medicine before his treatment can begin, we aim to get this special medicine to him in an average of 24 hours.
The service we provide has benefits for the Community Pharmacist as well as his patient, since it frees up his time, enabling him to concentrate on counselling patients, undertaking medicine reviews and expanding the other patient services, such as smoking cessation clinics, that many Pharmacists now undertake. The breadth of our offer, which includes sterile and non sterile, means that BCM can be a one stop shop providing a service that is simple, reliable and convenient to use.
How can we be seen as dynamic?
BCM has a culture of continuous improvement. We apply “LEAN” principles to working smarter to ensure that we systematically improve our standards of service and safety in the workplace.
The fail-safe way that we dispense is indicative of this, utilising a semi-automated system that ensures uniformity and consistency and is unique to BCM in the specials industry, providing those who use our services with absolute peace of mind.
Everyone at BCM engaged in making a medicine has a workspace a computer, which indicates what they need to weigh, how much, and whether they are working in the right way. It is so programmed to ensure that they cannot proceed until all the elements are right.
Recently BCM invested in a semi-automated bulk manufacturing facility that delivers dramatic cost efficiencies. For example a 100ml liquid preparation on the semi-automated facility makes into a stock line with a shelf life and reduces the cost of the preparation by 80%. In the same way, BCM are continually investing in stability work to establish the shelf life and enable the production of potentially bigger batch sizes, meaning that we can have the medicine on shelf and ready to send out to the customer on demand. In both cases, all of the cost savings that these initiatives have yielded have been passed on to our customers.
Our generic patient information leaflet is another first for BCM and demonstrates a proactive stance and a commitment to promoting greater patient understanding of the nature of a Special.
How are we patient focused?
The fact that a patient is on the other side of the counter needing our help when the Pharmacist calls is the focus of everything we do.
Our business is all about a preparation being made to suit the unpredictable requirements of a particular individual. If that patient is a child requiring a liquid formulation we may be exercised by what flavour will make it most palatable, we may even ask the Pharmacist what flavours his young patient likes. If blackcurrant is a favourite and will be suitable to mask some less palatable flavours then we will formulate this.
The fact that a patient is waiting also informs the fact that 95% of calls to BCM are answered within 3 rings. Whether we are getting hold of an ingredient that we have not used before in this context, or developing a formulation, we keep customers informed so that they can let patients know when to expect delivery and we offer the same service no matter where in country the Pharmacist is calling from.
Why are we reputable?
We have an unmatched seventy-year history as an ethical supplier of specials that people can trust.
The Association of Commercial Specials Manufacturers Limited. Registered in England and Wales, Company number 05015111, Unit 1, Regents Drive, Lower Prudhoe Industrial Estate, Prudhoe, Northumberland, NE42 6PX. Copyright 2009 ACSM, All rights reserved. Terms of Use