Pharmacist Dr Mahendra Patel, a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and member of the RPS English Pharmacy Board, has been given the Charter Award by the Society in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the profession. The Charter Award is made annually by the Society on the recommendation of its President.
Dr Patel became a pharmacist in 1981. He is Principal Enterprise Fellow in Pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield, and Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sheffield. He was also one of the first Fellows to be appointed to NICE, (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) and pioneered the development of the NICE Student Champions Scheme which develops the health professionals of the future to be ambassadors for NICE, a project which has spread to nearly 40 universities.
His voluntary and fundraising work spans almost most two decades locally, regionally, nationally, and includes being a governor at Wakefield Grammar School Foundation and helping to establish the fundraising branch of the British Heart Foundation in Wakefield and district. Only recently he was awarded the British Heart Foundation’s Regional Community Volunteer of the Year Award.
Dr Patel has established an annual student exchange programme with the University of Huddersfield and Wilkes University, Pennsylvania USA in his role as Visiting Professor at the Wilkes College of Pharmacy. This provides opportunities for Huddersfield students to widen their horizons and develop experience of different types of pharmacy practice.
Dr Patel is also a founding member of the Mouth Cancer Foundation, a charity providing information, advice and support to those with mouth, throat and other head and neck cancers to cope with their illness and to encourage early detection of these diseases.
Professor David Haslam, Chair, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said: “It has been an honour to have worked with Mahendra Patel for the past eight years. Over this time I have been hugely impressed with his work on NICE’s Accreditation Committee, and as the first NICE Fellow to come from a Pharmacy Background. He has led the way in inspiring many through NICE’s Student Champions Programme, and helping to develop the NICE Medicines Adherence Clinical Guideline. I am delighted his skill, energy, and passion for quality is being recognised by this Charter Award.”
