Covid-19: Diary of a front-line pharmacist (26/3/20)

Hours worked: 11hrs

Meals: 1

Water: 3 cups

Toilet breaks: 1

It is D-Day of lock down in New Zealand. The roads were a lot quieter on my drive to and from work. Though there were still a number of people out and about without many promised police in sight. Work still had numerous customers though much lessened than the panic rush from before.

I woke early today but in a bid to keep the promise to myself I forced my eyes to remain shut and tried to quieten my racing mind. Though I didn't get further rest I at least stayed in bed until a more reasonable hour. I made sure to not arrive early at work to make progress on cutting back on overtime hours.

We had our morning meeting. This time with staff on their first shift of the week. I told them of the strategies we had figured out over the week and reassured them that we will make it through. Opening to the public today was less nerve-wrecking. The lock down coupled with crowd control by the store meant a slower flow of customers. Scripts were still flowing in but at a steady pace. We were keeping up and we were managing to catch phone calls. The huge order was completed in reasonable time, the first in the week.

It was still a tiring day but the workload became more manageable. The strategies were working. We left work leaving no prescriptions untouched. A huge feat considering we still completed similar number of prescriptions to before. We felt more in control than we did all week.

Perhaps the one thing that soured the day was staff from the store approaching us to forcibly demand to be handed face masks. While I do sympathise the lack of protection that have been provided to all staff we just do not have enough to even cover ourselves. The precious few we had left were reserved for those serving customers and at high risk. To make them last we reused the same one for the entire day. We at the pharmacy could not practice social distancing and encounter more high risk patients, why couldn't the other staff see that? What world are we at that we would demand health professionals to give up their only protection? To make matters worse, the entire pharmacy staff were discriminated against as we went to the staff room to look for seats for lunch. A world that does not value their front line protectors is a world that is lost.

Though not all hope is lost. We received a care package from a local health professional group who spent time gathering what little supplies they could for all local pharmacies. I arrived home after yet another tiring day to find a package waiting for me. A friend who is a high-risk patient herself had sent me her own stash of face masks. Another friend poured her kindness and concern to help fill that hollow core, emptied by a day of facing selfishness. Many more followed. People checked on me, reminded me to take breaks, to pace myself and to have water and food. And there was that act of kindness in the staff room where a staff came to sit with us and another handed us a tray of chocolate hot cross buns. Acts of kindness that would not be forgotten.

Live. Love. Laugh. Liberate.

- Avis Knows

(This post was originally posted to Avis Knows Consulting Pharmacist.)