Staff profiles
Lucy Sibanda
Allergies Improvement Coordinator
What’s your role at TDHB?
I work in eMeds, part of the Pharmacy Department. My position is responsible for implementing the new TDHB Adverse Food and Drug Reactions Protocol (informally known as Allergy Guidelines), based on the recommendations of the Allergy Working Group 2016-2020 and the Allergy Information Strategy 2018. My aim is to improve the awareness, identification, documentation, visibility and monitoring of allergies at TDHB. I’m working with our teams to ensure sustainable processes and systems for allergies are embedded and a plan is developed for outstanding tasks.
What projects are you working on?
We’re implementing the new protocol for staff to follow when entering or encountering allergies in their daily roles. We’re working on quality assurance of all allergies entered into MedChart or WebPas and auditing to identify any issues with the current process and support development of solutions. We have a monitoring programme of allergies and we’ll be launching more allergy related initiatives around antimicrobials and other medicines.
What’s your background, how did you get to this point in your career?
I’m a registered pharmacist with an MPharm from the University of Manchester in the UK.
My career in pharmacy launched as an intern at The Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, UK.
My family and I moved to Taranaki in 2015. I initially joined Taranaki DHB on a project to code 40,000 allergies from MIMs to NZULM. I developed an interest in allergies as a result of that project and so when the role of Allergies Improvement Coordinator came up, I applied as I felt this would be a perfect role for me.
What’s the best thing about your job?
I work as part of an amazing team which is both supportive and knowledgeable about electronic prescribing, administering and dispensing of medicines. It helps to be able to make changes when you have the support you need, which I get here at TDHB.
What inspires you to keep doing your work?
I’m inspired by being able to make a difference to improving patient safety, even in a small way. I see positive changes in the way people see allergies and that keeps me going.
Any big plans?
I’d like to further my professional development and hopefully finally get the chance to get my teeth into some postgraduate study.