John Bell & Croyden runs a pharmacy at Wimbledon

Not every pharmacy shift involves a waiting room and a dispensary hatch. John Bell & Croyden operates a pharmacy at the Wimbledon Championships, placing a team of pharmacists inside one of the world's most watched sporting events. Chemist+Druggist visited to see how it works.

What happened

C+D reported on how John Bell & Croyden manages its pharmacy presence at Wimbledon, situated next to Court No. 1. The feature gives a rare look at what it actually means to run a pharmacy service in a non-traditional setting — one built around the demands of a major international tournament rather than a high street or hospital.

At the time of reporting, the John Bell & Croyden team mentioned they hadn't met any VIPs yet during Wimbledon. That small detail says something about the nature of the role: you're there to do a job, not to collect autographs. The patients coming through aren't necessarily the ones on Centre Court.

Why it matters

Pharmacy careers don't always look like what you trained for in your foundation year. Community pharmacy, hospital, GP practice — those are the settings most pre-regs think about because they're the ones GPhC training frameworks are built around. But pharmacists work in sport, industry, defence, prisons, airlines, and events. Wimbledon is a good example of what that can look like in practice.

Running a pharmacy at a major sporting event isn't a scaled-down version of community practice. The patient population is specific and temporary. The clinical presentations might differ from what you'd see on a Tuesday afternoon in a Boots on the high street. Access to records, continuity of care, and the ability to escalate are all different when you're working inside a sports venue rather than a GP surgery.

For a pharmacist, that means thinking on your feet. You're likely handling acute presentations — minor injuries, heat-related illness during a warm tournament fortnight, medication queries from attendees who've run out of something, or staff and crew with occupational health needs. None of that is exotic, but the context changes the decision-making. You don't have the same infrastructure around you.

There's also a professional identity point here. Pharmacy is still a profession that fights for recognition outside its traditional settings. Every time a pharmacist is embedded in a high-profile event and does that job well, it builds the case that pharmacists belong in more places than dispensaries. John Bell & Croyden taking on the Wimbledon contract is a commercial and professional statement about what pharmacy can offer.

For anyone still working out what kind of pharmacist they want to be, features like this are worth paying attention to. Not because Wimbledon is typical, but because it shows the range. You can follow a conventional path through your foundation year and end up doing something that looks nothing like it.

GPhC exam relevance

The GPhC Common Registration Assessment doesn't test knowledge of specific employers or contracts. But the themes that come up in a setting like this do map onto things the assessment does test.

Professionalism in unfamiliar settings is one. The GPhC's standards for pharmacy professionals apply wherever you work. They don't switch off because you're inside a sports venue rather than a registered pharmacy premises. That includes maintaining patient confidentiality, making decisions within your competence, and knowing when to refer. A scenario where a pharmacist is asked to provide advice outside their usual scope, or where the environment makes normal processes harder to follow, is exactly the kind of situation the assessment builds scenarios around.

Clinical reasoning under uncertainty is another. When you're working with limited patient history and no easy access to records, you're making decisions with incomplete information. The assessment tests that skill regularly — giving you a clinical vignette where not every piece of information is available, and asking you to reach a reasonable, safe decision.

Finally, scope of practice. Knowing what you can appropriately manage, what needs escalation, and how to handle a patient who expects more than you can safely provide — that comes up in exam scenarios and in every clinical setting, including ones you'd never expect to work in.

What's next

If you're in your foundation year and thinking about career direction, it's worth looking at how pharmacists are employed in non-traditional settings — not to apply tomorrow, but to understand that the profession is wider than the training pathway suggests.

For the assessment itself, the practical takeaway is to read scenario questions with the setting in mind. If a question places you in an unfamiliar environment, the clinical and professional principles don't change — but the context affects how you apply them. Practice reading those contextual cues and adjusting your reasoning accordingly.

Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/analysis/inside-the-pharmacy-at-the-wimbledon-championships-MFF6ZMKJ5JFBVAKR4X5ZHYNVI4/