I can’t afford to pay staff to cope with extra workload
MALCOLM Hill, 49, runs Milwards chemist in Newcastle-under-lyme,
Staffs, with his wife Stephanie,
50, the pharmacy manager. He says: IF EVER I should doubt why I work so hard, I only have to look at the board at the back of my pharmacy, with the dozens of ‘thank you’ cards from customers and their relatives.
It’s motivation for my staff and me. We need it: at times we struggle as we’re being asked to do more and more while our funding plummets.
One card is from the family of a widower in his 80s. A customer for many years, we know he lives alone, so my wife likes to regularly check he’s OK. Three weeks ago, she was concerned about the time it took him to reach the door — he was breathless and he didn’t look well, but didn’t want to bother his GP.
Stephanie gently persuaded him to call. It turned out he had a severe chest infection and needed antibiotics, which I delivered on my way home.
His family later dropped off some chocolates and a card, saying they lived 100 miles away and were grateful we’re keeping an eye on him.
I’ve been a pharmacist for 25 years, and came to this small pharmacy 14 years ago having worked for a bigger chain. I love my work and community, but if I could afford to, I’d be seriously thinking about retiring — I know other
pharmacists my age who’ve sold up as they can’t cope with the increased workload, stress and financial worry.
I work six days a week and have one week of holiday a year, as finding a good locum at an affordable rate is hard.
Covid brought more pressure and it hasn’t eased. Customers, especially the elderly, come to us because they find themselves the 60th in line in the queue when they call the GP.
Our workload is rising but we’ve had no increase in funding and I can’t afford to pay my staff extra to reflect this.
There are exciting new services pharmacists have to supply now, such as trying to identify customers with undiagnosed high blood pressure. This is exactly the sort of pharmacy work I enjoy. But to do it, I’d have to complete hundreds of blood pressure checks to make up for the lost revenue in dispensing prescriptions (and who would then dispense those?).
We serve a large community and many loyal customers go past two or three pharmacies to get here. It’s an honour to serve them. But for how much longer we can, I do not know.