Exclusive: Day Lewis executive director Jay Patel was working a shift as a pharmacist in one of his company’s branches when a hypertension check led to his being diagnosed with a serious heart condition, P3pharmacy can reveal. 

In an upcoming interview with P3pharmacy, Mr Patel says he “wouldn’t be alive” if it were not for a “proactively assertive” store team urging him to follow up on an opportune blood pressure check delivered through the NHS case-finding service. 

In the interview, he recounts how in late 2023 he decided to go back working on the floor of one of his pharmacies as a second pharmacist. After travelling from his home in Surrey to a branch in East London, team members suggested he try a blood pressure check.

“I sat in the chair, got the test done and it was slightly high,” said Mr Patel. “I shrugged it off – I’d driven almost two hours and then worked in a busy pharmacy, obviously the reading was going to be high.”

But branch manager George “pulled me aside and said no – you need to get this checked out,” Mr Patel recalled. 

Operation and ‘tough recovery’ 

Taking this advice, in January he saw a cardiologist who found “aggressive narrowing” in the coronary arteries, something he says is “largely down to a genetic issue”. His father Kirit Patel, who co-founded Day Lewis with brother JC in 1975, died in 2016 at the age of 66 after suffering a heart attack. 

“They recommended what is called a prognostic bypass,” recounted Mr Patel. “By April, I had found a surgeon. We looked at all options and then we went and did a full bypass. I was off work for three months to recover from the surgery and everything that comes with it.”

Mr Patel described a “tough recovery” that depleted his energy and left him unable to lift his children: “It is brutal surgery – they have to cut your chest open and they stop the heart, then they repair the blockages.”  In August he resumed “back to normal” working with the family-owned business. 

Already fit before the surgery, he has since focused on eating well and has cut sugar from his diet. He said: “It’s eat better, sleep better, move more. If anything’s too extreme it’s not worth doing.” 

‘I wouldn’t be alive’

Mr Patel, a 44-year-year old father of young children, thanks his family and colleagues for their support during his recovery. 

“If my team didn’t focus on the blood pressure testing, I wouldn’t be alive – I can absolutely guarantee that,” he said. 

“It was the hypertension case-finding service that really picked it up for me – that and the fact the team was so proactive about me following it up. When I got the result, I shrugged it off; I reckon I would probably have just said forget it and left it for another year or so, until symptoms presented.”

He has continued to benefit from community pharmacy consultations since his operation, he said: “After I came out of hospital, I went back to one of my pharmacists and got the New Medicines Service done. It turns out I’m intolerant to statins, so I had to change up my medication regime as well.” 

Commenting on the impact the experience has had on his life, he said: “Perspectives change when you get a critical moment like that. I’m left with significantly enhanced clarity with regards to what to focus on in my professional life and in my family life.”

The full interview with Jay Patel will be published in the January edition of P3pharmacy.