My proudest NHS moment

We are no strangers to bad weather in Scotland but when the Beast from the East struck, it was on another level. The response from my team and many other independent pharmacies was just fantastic though.

In quite a few villages the doctors weren’t able to get in, so we were the only recourse available. That was when having all the tools that the Scottish contract gives us, at our disposal, was really helpful. We had people who couldn’t get their repeat prescriptions, so we went into our urgent supply systems and helped them out. We had vulnerable patients in their homes and people who were really unwell asking us for help, and we had calls from GPs working from home to deliver vital medication. I’ll always remember this one young lady who had really young children with her at home and was in severe pain. The doctor prescribed her some strong painkillers, a controlled drug, and we got the car close enough so we could walk the last 500 meters through the blizzard, to get to her door. Both the doctor and the patient were snowed in their homes but we were out there, on the ground, and we made that delivery within about half-an-hour.

Author: Noel Wicks, NPA board member and managing director or Right Medicine Pharmacy in Falkirk, Scotland.