I am very much a firm believer than every negative has a positive, every positive has a negative. To me that is the balance of life. So, whilst we are going through a Corona virus life adjustment phase and listening to all the tales of doom and gloom, it’s good to stop and find the positives out of all of this. For me personally, I cling on to these positives during these times and they become my focus.
Now I don’t want to you all to think I am being flippant about this pandemic. And this is not to downplay the seriousness of the situation. I just want to highlight the good things that have happened. This is simply my observations of pharmacy during this phase, and some of the positives we can take from this. There are things we can learn from this and despite the hardship and exhaustion felt by some owners, there are some positives to take home and learn from.
Overall, I feel there are some aspects of this that pharmacy can learn from and adapt as permanent feature of their service offering going forward.
1. Free deliveries to local residents
One of the recommendations from the CP2025 Framework for Change was In-Home Care. Seeing nearly every pharmacy offering free deliveries to residents was a real highlight for me. This is a crucial step forward for pharmacy. Pharmacy has always been about “come to me”, now hopefully that has changed, and we are looking at it slightly differently. Particularly as convenience is one of the big issue’s customers look at when choosing what pharmacy they will use. I am certainly hoping this service is continued to be offered by pharmacy and extended to include greater scope of in-home care options for local residents.
2. Communication and connection to their local communities
This is something we have encouraged a lot at Peak. Connection to your local communities is so important. Humans build relationships through talking, interacting and connecting. Business must do the same to build stronger bonds with their local communities. We have seen pharmacy being so much more vocal on their social media over the past few weeks. The content has been great. Some of it has been heart felt, a lot has been educational, great elements of humour and a lot more videos from pharmacy owners. We hope pharmacy builds on this momentum, communicates more and becomes more relevant in the health sphere.
3. Status as trusted professionals
It has certainly become clear that pharmacy’s position as a clear link in the health needs of the community has certainly being strengthened. Long hours, free deliveries, clearly focused on community’s health, distribution of vital medications and working extremely hard in ensuring pharmacies have adequate supplies of essential health needs. Pharmacy has responded quickly and very effectively. And to hear of volunteers helping with stocking shelves, baking goodies and making deliveries also shows the community is willing to chip in and help this vital link. The support coming back to pharmacy has been great to see. Also, it has been great to see the whole of community pharmacy, in all aspects of the supply chain, coming together to ensure the health of the community is taken as a priority. Pharmacy has certainly reinstated itself as a key component in community health.