British Hepatology Pharmacy Group
Introduction:
The British Hepatology Pharmacy Group (BHPG) is an affiliated group of the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL).
It is a professional pharmacy organisation aiming to develop knowledge and understanding of liver disorders including viral hepatitis, in order to improve the quality of patient care, through:
• Promoting excellence in the provision of pharmaceutical care to all patients with liver disorders including viral hepatitis
• The promotion of a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach to caring for people with liver disorders including viral hepatitis
• The provision of educational support and educational opportunities in the field of hepatology and viral hepatitis;
• The promotion and dissemination of patient-focused research;
BHPG aims to offer support for all pharmacists who see patients with liver disease both as in-patients and out-patients. Pharmacy members of BASL currently include pharmacists working within hepatology, gastroenterology and infectious diseases, but with one common goal - to improve care for those with liver disease.
BHPG Educational Meetings Recordings and Presentation Available
The recordings from the BHPG Educational meeting from January 2022 and presentations from the face to face meeting held on 6th November are available to members through the members area of the website > here.
Workforce: Recommendations for UK Hepatology Pharmacy Staffing Standards: ADULT SERVICES
Please find a link below to the Recommendations for UK Hepatology Pharmacy Staffing Standards: ADULT SERVICES developed by BHPG and SOTPA and endorsed by BASL and BLTG.
Download Recommendations for UK Hepatology Pharmacy Staffing Standards_final.pdf
Any questions or comments around this document, please contact Sital Shah via email at sitalshah@nhs.net .
Thank you.
On behalf of the Liver pharmacy workforce working group
Resources
Paracetamol Position Statement - Download Paracetamol Position Statement_Mar 2022.pdf
BHPG is working collaboratively with Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) to produce educational resources on the management of liver disease. They are intended to support the pharmacy profession including entry level pharmacists, non-liver specialist pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians practising in primary and secondary care.
We are delighted to share the recently published SPS liver pages. Visit the links for full information.
Assessing liver function and interpreting liver blood tests: https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/assessing-liver-function-and-interpreting-liver-blood-tests/
Calculating and using the Child-Pugh score: https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/calculating-and-using-the-child-pugh-score/
The BHPG Committee
| BHPG Chair | Sital Shah, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
| BHPG Past Chair | Helen Boothman, St George’s University Hospital |
| BHPG Vice-Chair | Yun Kim, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust |
| Secretary | Sara Sawieres, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
| Treasurer | Sarah Cripps, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| Network Lead | Joanna Henry, Aintree University Hospital- LUHFT |
| Research | Alison Boyle, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde / Arron Jones, Barts Health NHS Trust / Connor Thompson, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
| Education | Naz Kanani Alviri, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust / Rebecca Harrison, Queen's Hospital, Romford, Greater London / Edward Plant, North Bristol NHS Trust |
| Education + RPS Faculty Mentor | |
| Communications Officer | Sonal Patel, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital |
| Primary Care/Community lead | Aimee Francisco, GP practice and Gloucestershire Hospitals |
| Technician Lead | Georgina Tucker, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
Sital Shah, King’s College Hospital - Chair
Sital graduated from the School of Pharmacy, University of London in 2010 and is currently a Consultant Pharmacist, Hepatology at King's College Hospital. Her post graduate training includes a diploma in general pharmacy practice, qualification as an independent prescriber and a MSc in Pharmacy Practice by Research. She is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at King's College London and a committee member of the UKCPA Gastroenterology and Hepatology Group. Sital’s research interests include viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver disease and advanced chronic liver disease.
Helen Boothman, St George’s University Hospital - Past Chair
Helen is Lead Hepatology Pharmacist at St George’s University Hospitals Foundation Trust and she has an active role in the programme management of the SW London Hepatitis C ODN. She studied Pharmacy at Liverpool John Moore's University in 2009 and completed her training year in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. She started her career at Leeds University Teaching Hospitals where she completed her residency training and obtained her Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy at Leeds University. She started working in Hepatology in 2015 at George’s NHS Foundation Trust, she has established Pharmacist led clinics in Hepatitis B and C, PBC and AIH and helped the team achieve IQILS level 2 with a special mention for the pharmacy service. She qualified as an independent prescriber in 2017. Helen’s interests are in viral hepatitis and autoimmune liver disease and service development.
Yun Kim, University Hospital Southampton - Vice-Chair
Yun Kim is a senior specialist pharmacist in hepatology at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. Yun graduated from pharmacy school at Liverpool John Moores University in 2013. Prior to this she obtained a BA in Health and Human Services from the University at Buffalo, USA. She has a postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy practice and is a qualified independent prescriber. Yun’s research interests lie in autoimmune liver disease and metabolic associated fatty liver disease.
Sara Sawieres, Kings College Hospital - Secretary
Sara graduated from Kingston University in 2008 and is the specialist pharmacist for Liver and Private Patients at King’s College Hospital. Post graduate qualifications include a diploma in clinical pharmacy, a qualification as a non-medical prescriber and a masters in Advanced Clinical Practice. Sara’s research interests lie within the management of Acute on Chronic Liver failure and acute liver failure.
Sarah Cripps, Oxford University Hospitals - Treasurer
Sarah is a Consultant pharmacist in Gastroenterology/ Hepatology and has worked at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since qualifying in 1995 from the University of Bath. She has experience in a wide range of clinical specialties, pharmacy management and education and training. Her main role has been as a specialist pharmacist in Gastroenterology/Hepatology for the last 23 years, 9 years of which as a Consultant Pharmacist in this specialty as awarded by the RPS. She is an independent pharmacy prescriber and Faculty Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and is currently chair of the UKCPA Gastroenterology and Hepatology interest Group, committee member of the British Viral Hepatitis Group (BVHG), and previously the nominated pharmacist for NHSE Hepatobiliary and Pancreas CRG.
Sarah has served on two NICE Guideline Development Groups for IBD, and has provided stakeholder feedback on behalf of UKCPA for NICE Technology Appraisals for IBD. She is also on the editorial board for CCUK. She regularly presents at local and national conferences and is the author of several publications. Sarah’s interests within hepatology include Hepatitis C, hepatitis B and autoimmune hepatitis. Her research interests include IBD patients’ beliefs about their Illness and medication and the implications for medicines adherence and patient education. She is also interested in therapeutic drug monitoring of biologics in medicines optimisation.
Joanna Henry, Aintree University Hospital - Network Lead
Joanna graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2008. She trained in Aintree hospital, working across the digestive disease and surgical specialities. She has undertaken training in nutrition and is currently doing her Diploma in Gastroenterology. Joanna is an independent prescriber and runs clinics in viral hepatology and IBD. Joanna’s interests are in digestive diseases and in hepatology, including viral hepatology, alcohol and fatty liver disease.
Sonal Patel, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital - Communications secretary
Sonal graduated from King’s College London in 2007. Her post graduate training includes a diploma in general pharmacy practice, and qualification as an independent prescriber. She has been working within Gastroenterology since 2013 initially specialising in IBD and general gastroenterology. She moved her focus to hepatology in 2019 and is currently the Specialist Hepatology pharmacist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital Foundation Trust, where she has developed pharmacist clinics to support patients with viral and autoimmune hepatitis. Sonal’s main interests remain in autoimmune and viral hepatitis.
Naz Kanani Alviri, Royal Free Hospital - Education Sub-Committee
Naz graduated from UCL School of Pharmacy and is currently a Specialist Hepatology Pharmacist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, where she has worked since 2018. As part of her role, she is the lead pharmacist for the North Central London Viral Hepatitis Operational Delivery Network. She has a postgraduate diploma in Advanced Clinical Pharmacy Practice. Naz’s interests include viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver disease, advanced chronic liver disease and liver transplantation.
Rebecca Harrison, Queen's Hospital, Romford - Education Sub-Committee
Rebecca graduated from the University of Reading and went on to do her training year at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She went on to do her foundation training at Barts Health, and now work as a Gastroenterology & Hepatology Specialist Pharmacist at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Greater London. Rebecca attained the post-graduate diploma from DMU and she is an independent prescriber. She has presented posters at BSG, EASL and BASL conferences, both independently and as collaborative projects. Her main interest is viral hepatitis.
Edward Plant, North Bristol NHS Trust - Education Sub-Committee
Ed is a Specialist Hepatology Pharmacist at North Bristol NHS trust. He obtained his master’s degree in pharmacy from the UCL School of Pharmacy and trained at King’s College Hospital as a senior pharmacist in the Liver team. He has advanced to become an independent prescriber, focusing on viral hepatitis and PBC. Ed also contributes to the University of Bath by delivering hepatology sessions for postgraduate diploma students and maintains a strong interest in research.
Alison Boyle, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde - Research sub-committee
Alison graduated from Strathclyde University in 2001 and has experience in a wide range of clinical specialities. She has specialised in blood-borne viruses (BBV) since 2011 starting initially at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and moved to her current post as Advanced BBV pharmacist in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2013. She has an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy and is a qualified independent prescriber. She is also a member of the Scottish Hepatitis Pharmacy Group. As a member of the University of Liverpool drug interactions website team, She contributes to the content of the Hepatitis , HIV and COVID-19 drug interaction websites. Alison’s research interests include viral hepatitis and drug-drug interactions.
Arron Jones, Barts Health NHS Trust - Research Sub-Committee
Arron graduated from the University of East Anglia and completed his clinical diploma at Liverpool John Moores University. He is a specialised pharmacist currently working with the hepatology team at Barts Health NHS Trust. He also an independent prescriber. Aarons main interest is in viral hepatitis.
Conor Thompson, Kings College Hospital - Research Sub-Committee
Connor graduated from the University of Brighton and went on to complete his post-graduate diploma and residency at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He moved into a specialist role at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where he qualified as a prescribing pharmacist to support hepatobiliary and viral hepatology services. He has since moved into academia as a Senior Lecturer, working on accreditation of both undergraduate and post-graduate prescribing qualifications at the University of Brighton. He has clinical commitments with the gastroenterology team at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. Connor has presented his research at a number of national and international conferences, including UKCPA, BASL, AASLD, and most recently EAHP.
Aimee Francisco, GP practice and Gloucestershire Hospitals - Primary care/Community Lead
Aimee graduated from the University of Bath in 2014 and now splits her time between primary care and her role as an advanced specialist pharmacist in gastroenterology at Gloucestershire Hospitals. She has a postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy practice and is qualified as an independent prescriber. Aimee’s interests are in autoimmune liver disease, viral hepatitis and MASLD.
Georgina Tucker, Kings College Hospital - Technician Lead
Gina completed her NVQ3 in pharmacy services via the National Pharmacy Association in 2016 and subsequently registered as a pharmacy technician. Gina has over 12 years of pharmacy experience working in both hospital and community sectors. She joined King’s College Hospital as a rotational medicines management pharmacy technician in November 2020, and went on to become part of the liver team in April 2022. During her time at King’s, Gina has developed the pharmacy technician role to support in pharmacy-led outpatient clinics for patients with viral hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis. Gina has contributed to posters presented at RPS, APTUK and BASL.
