Martin Stephens

Panel of Fellows

Martin Stephens graduated from Nottingham University in 1979, undertaking his preregistration training in South Warwickshire Hospitals, including a six-month placement in mental health. He worked as a junior pharmacist in the West Midlands with time at Kidderminster, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Birmingham General Hospital; roles included introducing clinical services in learning disability units, medicines information, education and training, and clinical services in acute medicine.

Martin became Chief Pharmacist at Wolverhampton, developing clinical and directorate pharmacy services there and being actively involved in the Keele based clinical training programme. In 1997 he was appointed Chief Pharmacist for Southampton Teaching Hospitals where he oversaw the extension of clinical pharmacy, expansion of aseptic services and the appointment of consultant pharmacists for intensive care and anti-infectives. In 2006, Martin took on a broader clinical leadership role alongside the leadership of clinical effectiveness in the trust. 

Martin was appointed National Clinical Director for Hospital Pharmacy for 2008 to 2011 working on pharmacy’s role in thromboprophylaxis, safer transfers of care and better use of medicines. His final full-time role was as Chief Executive of Wessex Academic Health Science Network where he oversaw the set up and licencing, establishing the medicines optimisation programme and the successful initiation of a range of improvement workstreams.

Following retirement from full time work, Martin was chair of the pharmacy local professional network 2015 to 2020, visiting professor at the University of Portsmouth and chair of the Chief Professional Officers Medicines Mechanisms board. He also is lead of the learning groups for the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Clinical Fellows.

Martin has contributed to a number of publications, is author of Strategic Medicines Management (Pharmaceutical Press 2005) and editor of Hospital Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Press, 2nd edition 2011). Martin has a masters in health economics and management and he is a registered RPS mentor.