HOSPITAL pharmacist Stan Dobrzanski has prescribed himself a long and happy retirement after almost 40 years at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Mr Dobrzanski’s career has seen lots of changes over the years and he has been instrumental in making many of them happen.

He remembers the days when pharmacists stayed behind a small hatch wearing white lab coats and carrying round clipboards and pencils, before computers were introduced.

“One of the things I am looking forward to in my retirement is not having to remember lots of passwords,” he said. “When I first started in the role, there were around 600 drugs we could dispense whereas today there are some 13,000.”

Originally from Smethwick, in the West Midlands, he studied pharmacy at London University and then a PhD in psychopharmacology at Cardiff before moving to Bradford in 1978.

Mr Dobrzanski, who went on to become the hospital’s assistant director (pharmacy), expanded the hospital’s pharmacist role beyond the dispensing hatch to being a surgical medication planner so successfully that the concept was adopted nationally and internationally, with Mr Dobrzanski travelling to Malaysia to set up surgical pharmacy there.

His expertise also led to him being invited by the Government to become one of only four UK pharmacists to work on a law-changing project that led to health care professionals and not just doctors being allowed to prescribe. Other projects included research helping promote warfarin, rather than aspirin, being prescribed for patients with Atrial Fibrillation, helping reduce strokes in the city.

He has also spearheaded studies including looking into patients’ missed doses and identifying why doctors make prescribing errors.

Married and living in Heaton with two grown-up sons and a daughter, Mr Dobrzanski plans to continue as a member of the Leeds-Bradford Research Ethics Committee.

“Pharmacy is fun and exciting,” he said.

“I have had the privilege of working with people who make up a brilliant department; people who are good, kind and concerned for each other’s welfare. And this is something I have found on my time on the wards as well. I shall definitely miss them and I shall also miss Bradford patients – the finest people in the world.”