NEW PREMISES
FOR SIX YEARS, THE TEAM AT NUMARK MEMBER, CRIMOND PHARMACY OPERATED OUT OF A PORTACABIN, BUT STILL MANAGED TO DELIVER AN EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO ITS LOCAL COMMUNITY. SP SPOKE TO PHARMACY MANAGER, LAUREN DUNCAN, ABOUT THE RECENT OPENING OF THEIR NEW PREMISES.
CRIMOND PHARMACY: ALL SINGING AND DANCING NOW!
T
he Crimond Medical Centre was a dispensing doctor’s practice up until 2011 when our owner and
manager, Sam Reid, became involved in the opening of Crimond Pharmacy. A purpose-built portacabin was set up in the car park of the GP surgery and this was intended to serve as the pharmacy for two years until we moved into the new medical centre and community hub. However, due to many delays, we spent six years in the portacabin until our recent move.
The new Medical Centre and Community Hub is located just along the road from our old premises on the outskirts of the village. During the weekend of our move, staff and their families knuckled down to pack up the old premises and relocate to our new shop. Our new front shop was stocked up over several weeks before hand with the girls working over and above their normal hours to get it done prior to the opening.
We faced a few challenges in our temporary premises; dispensing between 6000-7000 items a month in such a small space was challenging at times as there was very limited space for excess stock, limited worktops for dispensing/making up dosette boxes
20 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
etc. We made do with what we had at the time, but it wasn’t until we were in our new shop that we wondered how on earth we ever managed!
We didn’t have a front shop in the portacabin - just a small back wall of OTC products. This wasn’t ideal as there is such a wide range of products we would have loved to have stocked, but we could only stock the most popular items requested by patients. Now we have a big front shop with a wide range of health and personal care products.
Since our move, we have been much busier. The girls have coped so well and everyone has involved themselves in the new roles and responsibilities. Our customers are full of praise for the new centre; it’s such a great thing for a small village. The centre includes the medical centre, the pharmacy, a café, gym, beautician and CLAN cancer support rooms. It’s just great and has been busy since the day we opened. Our customers love having a shop to look round or go for a coffee as they wait for their prescriptions.
We have a purpose-built consultation room, which is ideal for providing services such as smoking cessation, blood pressure and urine testing,
fl u vaccination EHC and pregnancy testing amongst a wide range of other services.
I have worked for the Buchanhaven Pharmacy Ltd company since 2004 when I was fi fteen and took on a Saturday job in the Peterhead shop alongside Sam. I love my job and am so thankful I’ve been given the chance to work in such a great new premises. I hope our new premises will attract
more patients and our consultation room will encourage patients to take advantage of the range of services available. I plan to do my independent prescribing course January next year and having this will also let me provide even more services to patients which I’m really looking forward to. It’s an ever-changing industry so it’s important we keep up to date with new products and services. •
FUNDRAISING AND LOCAL EVENTS
Manager and owner of Buchanhaven Pharmacies Ltd. Sam Reid and her team do some incredible work for charity, more recently raising funds for Stoke Scotland following a member of Sam’s team devastatingly suffering a stroke at the age of 29.
‘Ashley had worked for us since I bought the business back in 2004,’ Sam told SP. ‘In November last year, Ashley had a stroke totally out of the blue when her new baby was just around a year old. She struggled hard with her thought processes when she tried to return to work a few months later and I think the call of a her new baby led to the diffi cult decision for her to resign. We decided to start fundraising for Stroke Scotland in 2017. Amongst other activities we’ve hosted a week long bake sale, held raffl es, book sales, made and sold jam, chutney and lemon curd. You name it we’ve done it.
‘Crimond also chose to partner with CLAN – a local cancer support group. The pharmacies have an activity on the go all the time - it’s given us a real buzz! Customers have knitted and dressed dolls, donated hampers, bottles of whisky, knotted toys, loads of books and even the shelves to display them on! The biggest event by far was the sky dive. Ashley went along with the girls for moral support and six of our staff threw themselves out of a plane! To date, we have raised just short of £5000 which is incredible. Our customers have been so supportive as they all loved and miss Ashley very much. I’m incredibly proud of my team for all their achievements, not only with their fundraising efforts, but for how they pulled together to make our recent relocation such a success.’
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