Working at Alton Pharmacy During COVID-19
Message from Saghir Ahmed.
“Iby and I went to Alton Pharmacy as Brent the pharmacist at the store told us that last week was immensely busy, and they were three staff members down; one person was recovering from surgery, and the other two had to self-isolate because of possible COVID-19 symptoms.
By Saturday, they were three days behind with their prescriptions, and they had a large nursing home that needed their medication dispensed for delivery on Wednesday morning. Therefore, Iby and I made the decision to work on the frontline with Brent and the team at Alton Pharmacy to help relieve the immense pressure upon them as customers were informed by the surgeries that their prescriptions will be ready, and to support the team whilst they were clearly stressed and worried about their own well-being considering that patients were coming to the pharmacy to see them and not the GP surgeries as their doors were closed.
Everyone worked incredibly hard to process, clinically screen, dispense and check every prescription, including those for the nursing home – all done by 2pm on Tuesday. The team pulled together and worked cohesively so that people in Alton can have their medication on time so that they have one less thing to worry about during this very difficult and stressful period.
It was also encouraging to hear positive feedback from the local community tell us how wonderful the pharmacy and team are, and how proud they are of them, especially at such a difficult time for everyone. As the community are very supportive of Alton Pharmacy, Saghir and Iby not only wanted to support the pharmacy team, but we wanted the local community to carry on being supportive of the pharmacy. Therefore we felt it was essential that we went to Alton and get through all the work.”