Mrs Afifah Ranza
Afifah has enjoyed a dynamic and productive career since qualifying as a pharmacist, having held various clinical and operational roles across private and NHS organisations.
Starting out in community pharmacy, Afifah has held several posts in the commercial and independent sector as a Pharmacist Manager. The diversity of roles allowed her to showcase her strengths and resilience in operational and business management and propelled her into the role of Regional Cluster Manager. Here she was responsible for providing overall clinical and operational support to teams across all aspects of their business allowing them to maintain expected standards safely and effectively.
Afifah has also played a pivotal role in showcasing pharmacists’ skills within NHS111 when she became the first North-East London Urgent Care Specialist Pharmacist for the London Ambulance Service.
Prior to the pandemic, Afifah took on a role as Clinical Services Manager for a digital health start-up, overseeing the clinical workforce alongside supporting the digital team on clinical safety and governance elements for ongoing digital health projects. The pandemic saw Afifah transition into GP practice as a clinical prescribing pharmacist to support the demand and pressures felt by primary care during this turbulent period.
Previous to becoming a fellow, Afifah held a dual role as a clinical project lead for a Primary Care Network and worked as a Primary Care Locality Manager for a CCG, now an Integrated Care System (ICS).
Afifah is currently studying for her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and working towards her final year management project.
Reason for applying for the scheme
Afifah’s tenacity, resolve and desire to challenge and push herself professionally and personally, above and beyond the conventional norms and boundaries expected from pharmacists, has led her to embrace the opportunity to apply for the CPhO clinical fellowship.
She is keen to put the theoretical elements of her MBA programme: accounting and economics, competitiveness through technology and innovation, digital marketing and branding, leadership for transformational change, entrepreneurship and creativity, management consulting and digital health and informatics, into application within the larger realm of healthcare. What’s more, the opportunity to be a fellow at NHS Digital will prove invaluable in guiding Afifah with her management project which is centred around digital health.
Afifah feels tremendously excited at the prospect of cross-functional working alongside innovative and future visionaries to gain an unfiltered insight into the dynamics of healthcare at both local and national levels. In addition to showcasing her current capabilities, she is hoping to enhance and further refine her skills, knowledge, and perspective through first-hand involvement within senior healthcare organisations at the heart of decision making. She passionately believes with the right opportunities, guidance and exposure, pharmacists are capable of impacting significant influence across all realms of the healthcare system.
She is hoping this scheme will offer an invaluable platform to observe first-hand what a successful, effective and functional leadership landscape looks like within large, complex and diverse healthcare organisations. Ultimately, empowering her to position herself to someday achieve her ambition to emerge as a strong and competent female leader.
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