The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) has appointed Claire Steele as its new president.

Ms Steele, whose appointment was announced today, is head of pharmacy medicines supply and quality at health board NHS Fife, and until now has been APTUK’s professional lead for Scotland. She replaces Liz Fidler, who stood down as president in 2021.

 In a statement, Ms Steele told APTUK members: “I am delighted and honoured to be appointed as president of APTUK and look forward to working with you, our stakeholders and our partners to continue to strengthen representation of the pharmacy technician profession.

“The past two years have been exceptionally challenging for all pharmacy services and to each of you, I offer my heartfelt thanks for your dedication to our communities.

“Because of what you have achieved and the hard work by the association, the profile of pharmacy technicians is greater than ever before. We need to capitalize on this and amplify our lobbying for legislative change to enable pharmacy technicians to practice independently and optimize the care and services we offer to our patients.

“As your President, I will drive our strategy over the next 5 years and advocate for pharmacy technicians to be represented at the highest level.

“To do this we need to ensure our association operates efficiently and sustainably therefore, I, and the executive committee, will seek new sponsorship partners, so that we can invest more into our member services.

“All of your APTUK directors and the majority of executive committee members are volunteers with busy and often stressful day jobs to manage; I am no exception.

“We need your support to help grow our membership across all of the home countries. The more members we have, the greater our voice is and the stronger we become. As a pharmacy technician, I want to be heard as I am sure you do too.”