Big Savings, Big City and Big on Comms: The value of design and communications skills at CPC 2025
A few weeks ago, I swapped the quiet life of my home desk in Weymouth for the hustle and bustle of London to present at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress 2025 with Tracy and Sam—a day of travel, talking and 17,000 steps!
The reason? Share the story behind “Only Order What You Need”—a campaign that’s made a significant change to medicines waste in Dorset and beyond.
Sam Ruston, Principal Pharmacist, Maryann Crowley-Hine, Graphic Designer and Tracy Lyons, Principal Pharmacist at CPC London 2025.
No trip to London is complete without a fancy coffee. The new Tiramisu Oat Shaken Espresso is something else.
Landing at ExCeL London, I did the usual shuffle of trying to look like I knew exactly where I was going, while quietly following signs and other people in lanyards to find Tracy and Sam in the speaker lounge. The CPC space was buzzing—packed with stands, ideas, and sharing knowledge in forums throughout the day.
Lunch was one of those brilliant conference moments where you sit down with strangers and end up having the most insightful chat. I spoke to pharmacists dealing with the same over ordering issues we see in Dorset—except in the centre of London. It was one of those “different postcodes, same story” kind of conversations.
They asked about how we got our stakeholders (particularly community pharmacy) on board and of course – the cost of our campaign. Luckily for them, all of which is available on our newly launched media centre. You’ll hear more about this another day!
Then after lunch, it was go time. We were mic’d up (cue my Lizzie McGuire moment) and we stepped up to present the story behind Only Order What You Need.
We are Cognitive’s doodle illustration
This campaign has been one of the highlights of my time at NHS Dorset —not just because it looks good (and subjectively, it does!), but because it works. Which is the truest test of design. We’ve had the opportunity to save £475,000 and 295 tons CO2e carbon emissions avoided. and the bonus? It’s been picked up and adapted across the UK. Now, that return on investment spans not just Dorset. All through thoughtful design, clear communication, and a lot of collaboration between primary care, community pharmacy and NHS Dorset teams.
What struck me as we spoke is how much impact good creative can have when paired with purpose. Behaviour change is hard. But when we design and communicate with purpose—and creativity—it becomes doable.
The Q&A brought thoughtful questions and great discussions. Lots of which included sharing design resource, finding the barriers to behaviour change and how we would adapt messaging for different audiences.
And then came the cherry on top: the final live illustration from the amazing team at We are Cognitive, who were doodling the session as we spoke. Seeing your words reflected in marker lines? Magic! This made my design brain so happy.
Then it was time to make the journey back home—to my little family and that weird but satisfying post-conference buzz and enthusiasm for what’s next.
There’s something great about presenting something you’re passionate about. The best part of the day wasn’t just sharing the results. It was showing that design and communications aren’t just ‘add-ons’—they’re central to changing behaviour, improving systems, and creating real, measurable impact.
