Prescribing kindness

Talking to Hayley Prior, Store Manager in Airdrie, Scotland, about how her team has pulled together to support their community and prescribe kindness during the Covid-19 pandemic.

How has your working life changed since before the Covid-19 pandemic?
Working life has changed significantly. The biggest change would be the safety measures, including full PPE, that have been implemented in store to protect both staff and customers. Our shop is situated beside the biggest health centre in Scotland, which contains six large surgeries. We usually have a high volume of walk-in business, which transformed overnight as surgeries closed and walk-in scripts vanished. My store, along with three other local Boots stores, was the first point of contact for every patient who utilised our collect service in a way they had never done before. The challenge for our store at the height of the pandemic was to manage our ever-increasing workload, customer expectations and control the queue both inside and outside the store as safely as possible. Prescription deliveries naturally increased and we had to make sure our most vulnerable patients were prioritised, making regular contact to ensure they were safe and well.

How have you and your team been working together during the pandemic?
They say under intense pressure you can either sink or swim, and our team certainly swam. With four times the amount of prescriptions and staff absence at an all-time high, the team rose to the challenge. They put in extra shifts where they could, cancelled annual leave, and put their jobs before everything else as we strived to get critical medication to our patients. Midnight shifts were even implemented to ensure workload was dealt with efficiently. Over the Easter holidays, the team wanted to give something back to the community, so decided that we would collect and donate to the local food bank, which at the time was struggling more than ever.

In order to keep the positive spirit alive, during Mental Health Awareness week, our pre-reg pharmacist Victoria Gibbons set up a 'let's prescribe kindness' event in store for staff. Each member of staff was given a chance to write a message of positivity about another colleague, which were then collectively shared. This small gesture made a huge difference and lifted the spirits of the team.

Our team continues to astound me daily by going the extra mile to help vulnerable people in our community

What have you been doing to support vulnerable patients?
Our team continues to astound me daily by going the extra mile to help vulnerable people in our community, from collecting specific brands of medication from a local hospital for patients unable to tolerate alternatives, to hand-delivering prescriptions on their way home from work. The Airdrie community regularly hands in treats with handwritten cards to show their gratitude. These gestures make it all worthwhile.

One particular example where a colleague went the extra mile was for a young boy who had been newly diagnosed with coeliac disease at the beginning of the pandemic. His mum talked to a pharmacy advisor about the struggle to get basic gluten-free products in supermarkets. The colleague explained that the pharmacy ran a gluten-free service and that day, the young boy was provided with basic gluten-free essentials like bread and cereal that he otherwise had no way of getting. The patient's mum was overwhelmed by the dedication of the staff member and could not thank her enough.