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Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group welcomes new vice-chair

The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (CPPSG) is delighted to announce the appointment of Martin Sadr-Kazemi as their new vice-chair.

Martin Sadr-Kazemi is the Medication Safety Officer and Deputy Superintendent Pharmacist at Rowlands Pharmacy.  He has been a member of the CPPSG since it formed 10 years ago and has contributed to a number of initiatives in that time. His career has spanned several roles in Rowlands including as Pharmacist Manager, Clinical Governance Pharmacist and Quality and Clinical Governance Manager before being recently appointed as Deputy Superintendent Pharmacist.  In his role, Martin leads on Patient Safety and Clinical Governance standards for the Rowlands.   Martin also leads on the CPPSG’s work on liquid medicines and represents the Group at the National Paediatric MSO meetings and NHSE’s Pharmacy Integration Clinical Reference Group.  

Martin’s appointment follows the very sad news of the passing of Dr José Moss, in January 2025.

The CPPSG will be ever grateful for José’s professional integrity, commitment to patient safety and care. José was a founding member of the CPPSG and became Vice Chair in 2024. Jose leaves behind an incredible legacy of patient safety which the Group endeavours to build upon.

Jackie Giltrow, Chair of the Group said: “I am delighted that Martin has been appointed as vice-chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group and I look forward to working with him in this capacity. Martin has always been a very active member of the Group and represents us at many external meetings. I know that Martin will be an absolute asset and provide invaluable support in enabling the Group to build on our previous work plus work towards future improvements in patient safety. The Group is instrumental in promoting patient safety and driving improvements in community pharmacy. We will continue to have a laser focus on patient safety in this new era of community pharmacy”.

Martin Sadr-Kazemi, vice-chair of the Group said: “I’m really grateful to be chosen as the new vice-chair by my peers. I’m committed to supporting patient safety in community pharmacy and after 10 years with the CPPSG, I’m honoured to become vice-chair. The work of the Group, particularly ‘sharing and learning’, is essential to enable us all to continually improve the care of patients in Community Pharmacy. I’m also keen to ensure that we continue to connect with external groups to work effectively across the system to ensure patient safety remains at the heart of our work.”

Since its inception, the CPPSG has played an integral role in driving the patient safety agenda forward. This includes reducing Look-Alike-Sound-Alike errors, and other medication errors to advocating for an open and transparent approach to reporting, as well as sharing and learning from incidents. Last year the CPPSG produced a new video resource “Focus on Fentanyl”. The video is aimed at pharmacy team members, helping them to feel confident in counselling patients in the safe use and disposal of fentanyl patches.

The CPPSG formed in 2015, bringing together MSOs from community pharmacy, following an MHRA and NHSE patient safety alert.  The Group is focused on sharing and learning from dispensing incidents to embed a culture of patient safety across the entire sector. Organisations who are interested in joining the Group are actively encouraged to get in touch to learn more. This applies to organisations who have 50 or more community pharmacies.

The Group is actively looking for sponsors. Organisations keen to promote patient safety are encouraged to get in touch to discuss opportunities to support the Group.

ENDS

Notes to editors

  • The CPPSG was first established in 2015 following an NHS Alert which recommended community pharmacy businesses to identify a Medication Safety Officer (MSO).
  • The original 2014 NHS Alert is here. Supporting information can be found here.
  • The CPPSG provides a forum for large community pharmacy organisations (defined as 50 or more pharmacies in the MHRA alert), competitors in a commercial sense, to openly share and learn from each other when things go wrong, as well as from other sectors and industries. It is made up of the largest community pharmacy businesses, as well as organisations representing independent pharmacies and small multiples. The Group works together to consider how learning from patient safety incidents can be applied across the pharmacy network and wider NHS, and then create the opportunities and resources to do just that.
  • The MSO role is undertaken by the NPA and Numark for independent pharmacies. The Group also includes an IPA representative. 
  • MSOs took this requirement further and meet regularly to share and learn from patient safety incidents and drive improvements in patient care across community pharmacy and more widely. As part of its work, the group engages with a wide array of stakeholders including the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England (NHSE), the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).
  • The Group also feeds into the Community Pharmacy England (CPE) discussions on the Pharmacy Quality Scheme, have helped make patient safety alerts clearer, supported the process of handling defective medicines, as well as inputting into the development of the national incident reporting system.
  • The Group was wholly sponsored by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) in 2024 and now seeks sponsorship for 2025 and future years through a co-sponsorship model.
  • The Group is hosted and supported by the CCA.