Meet #OurEntrepreneurs. Today we welcome Anthony Singh, a Lead Clinical Pharmacist from Leicestershire.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I am a BMS-accredited Menopause Specialist and the Head Clinical Pharmacist for Northwest Leicestershire GP Federation. With a leadership portfolio spanning strategic service development, I pioneered the UK’s first pharmacist-led NHS Menopause Clinic and lead the newly launched Women’s Health Hub in Leicestershire.
Name: Anthony Ajvinder Singh Digpal , NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Cohort 9
Occupation: Lead Clinical Pharmacist Northwest Leicestershire GP Federation
I manage a team of over 30 pharmacy professionals and work nationally and internationally to improve access to women’s health services, particularly for underserved communities. I am passionate about innovation, equitable care, and using technology such as AI and digital consultations to transform primary care delivery.
Tell us about your innovation
The challenge I am addressing is the significant gap in access to high-quality, personalised menopause care within the NHS — a gap that disproportionately affects women in underserved, deprived, and minority communities. Despite national guidance and growing awareness, menopause remains underdiagnosed, poorly managed, and often misdirected through antidepressant prescribing because of limited time, training, and capacity in general practice. With GPs under pressure to prioritise same-day access, preventive and specialist care such as menopause support is frequently deprioritised. This matters because menopause affects nearly half the population at some point, and poorly managed care leads to workplace absences, reduced quality of life, mental health deterioration, and avoidable long-term conditions like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Health inequalities are widening, with women in deprived areas less likely to access HRT and more likely to suffer in silence or turn to unregulated private care.
To tackle this, I developed a pharmacist-led, AI-enhanced menopause clinic model embedded within primary care. This approach leverages the growing GP pharmacist workforce and their expanding prescribing powers, combined with digital tools such as AI triage, self-booking, and pre-consultation videos. Together, these innovations create a streamlined, scalable service that works in real-world NHS settings and addresses the systemic barriers to care.
The impact so far has been significant. In just 15 months, the service has seen over 1,500 patients across 12 GP surgeries. It has prevented unnecessary GP appointments — 69% of patients said they would have seen a GP if the clinic hadn’t existed — and reduced private spend, with 16 patients reporting they would have paid privately at an average of £200 per consultation. Patient satisfaction is exceptionally high, with 97% rating their experience positively after a 20-minute pharmacist consultation.
My vision is to transform menopause care in the NHS by reducing health inequalities through access-first models that reach women who wouldn’t otherwise engage, empowering pharmacists to become front-line providers of specialist care, and relieving pressure on GPs. This model demonstrates that prevention, innovation, and digital solutions can co-exist in overstretched systems. What we’ve built is a service that meets clinical demand, reduces inequalities, and supports GPs under pressure — a blueprint for scaling equitable menopause care across the NHS.
What made you join the CEP and what are your ambitions for the next year?
I applied because I’ve reached a point where local impact isn’t enough. Over the past year, I’ve built and led a pharmacist-led menopause clinic that has treated more than 1,500 patients across 12 GP practices. It’s a proven, digitally enabled model that improves access, reduces GP workload, and empowers pharmacists to deliver specialist care. But to scale this nationally, influence policy, and help others replicate the model, I need the structure, credibility, and connections that this programme offers.
What excites me most is the chance to learn from experienced mentors and collaborate with innovators who’ve successfully taken ideas from frontline practice to national adoption. Over the next year, I hope the programme will help me sharpen my strategy, strengthen my leadership skills, and build the partnerships needed to integrate this model into wider women’s health and pharmacy workforce plans. Ultimately, I want to move from local innovation to system-level change — creating a future where pharmacist-led care is routine, not radical.
Why do you think innovation in healthcare is important?
Innovation is essential in healthcare because the problems we face today won’t be solved by yesterday’s thinking.
We are working within a system under enormous pressure. Demand is rising, workforce burnout is increasing, inequalities are widening, and funding is limited. Traditional models, no matter how well-intentioned, are no longer enough to meet these challenges. Innovation allows us to rethink how we deliver care, not just more efficiently, but more equitably, proactively, and intelligently.
But innovation in healthcare is not just about technology. It is about changing mindsets. It is about empowering the right people, such as pharmacists, nurses, and other underutilised professionals, to work at the top of their licence. It is about building services that fit patients’ lives, not just our clinic schedules. And it is about creating models that are preventive, digital-first, and sustainable, especially in areas like women’s health, which have been overlooked for too long.