THE CURE FOR LONELINESS
COMMUNITY CHEMISTS ARE UNSUNG HEROES OF THE MOMENT. DANIEL LYNCH LOOKS AT THEIR VITAL ROLE
SITTING at the heart of Havering, the London borough with the highest Covid infection rate, is Safedale Pharmacy. For more than 40 years, it has stood at the epicentre of this community, a friendly and familiar face for generations of locals. This year has been a challenging one, but this institution on the outskirts of Romford town centre has remained steadfastly open all the way through. ‘We haven’t had a single day off,’ states manager and branch pharmacist Khalid Waseem, proudly.
There were many initial issues distributing PPE. ‘We footed the bill,’ Khalid tells me. ‘Gloves, masks, aprons
‘We are a human point of contact for people who have nobody else to talk to’
– whatever was needed to ensure we stayed open, we provided out of our own pocket.’
The main dispensary is huge, with ten staff busily working around each other. There are two pharmacists three days a week and, unusually, a second, smaller dispensary in a converted storage space next door, that organises Dosette boxes. These boxes sort customers’ pills into weekly day and time compartments, making it easier for elderly customers to monitor and manage their medicine.
‘There was actually a lull at the start of the first lockdown, where I guess a lot of people were getting their heads around it and were scared to leave home.’ It didn’t take too long before customers started filing back into the shop. ‘This is a flagship branch with fantastic footfall,’ says Khalid. ‘At the moment we’re limping along, but in normal times, the shop is packed.
‘This is a friendship-based business. Everyone is on first-name terms. We provide a human point of contact for so many elderly people who have nobody else to talk to. This is their social interaction for the day, the week, the month, even.’
A free home-delivery service drops medicines to local community homes, care homes and assisted-living developments, as well as the private homes of the elderly, infirm or otherwise limited mobility locals. The service has been operating for many years. ‘We had huge pick-up during lockdown. We were bursting at the seams,’ says Khalid.
Before the pandemic, the daily deliveries would normally all be done by 2pm, but at the height of Covid, this stretched much later into the afternoon.
‘At the start of the pandemic, we had calls from people who were not even delivery patients telling us they didn’t want to risk coming out, but really needed handwash. We don’t normally like to take cash at the door, but wanted to help out. We even had a request from somebody to bring a pizza!’
Things have thankfully levelled off since then, although 50 home deliveries per day is still pretty normal, and demand may well rise again with the tightening of restrictions as the area heads into Tier 3 today. Some of the deliveries are to customers who have moved out of the area. ‘We try to go over and above for them, delivering up to ten miles away. They don’t have the ways and means to get down to us, so it’s this or change to a chemist nearer, but they don’t want to do that.’
Deliveries are strictly face-toface handovers and again, customers are on first-name terms with drivers. I head out with Juline Flatman, a local herself, who used to come into the shop as a kid. Now her own children do the same. She knows her customers well, banging loudly on their doors and listening out for sounds. ‘It’s only me,’ she calls. ‘It’s OK, darling, take your time, don’t rush.’
There are certain customers she tries to allocate more time for when she knows they need a little extra TLC. Conversation is key, though, and she chats with almost everyone.
Back at base, conversation turns to vaccines – they are currently inoculating many of their customers for flu. ‘We’ve been undertaking the seasonal flu vaccine for years. You can walk in here and have a flu vaccine at any time, which isn’t always possible at your GP’s surgery,’ explains Khalid. ‘We hear the same story every year. Customers try to book an appointment with their doctor, but they’re often too busy. They come in and ask when they can have one and I tell them they can have one right now. They’re so surprised. They put their shopping down, we administer the jab and that’s that, they’re protected for a whole year.’
In an average winter period this branch would inoculate between 500 to 1,000 people. That’s a huge load off local surgeries. ‘Your pharmacist is the most accessible of all the health professionals,’ says Khalid. ‘You literally have to walk in and say, “I want to see a pharmacist” and you can, there and then.’
So does he think he’ll soon be administering coronavirus vaccines?
‘We’ve had no special instructions through as of yet. I suspect that pharmacists will be involved in the rollout at some point – there are simply too many people and too few doctors.’