Fife's unsung heroes: Jayne Kirk, pharmacy manager
Fife has many unsung heroes who have gone the extra mile to help others during the coronavirus lockdown. They are working hard behind the scenes to make sure that our buses still run, our prescriptions dispensed, and our services all keep ticking over. They deserve their moment in the spotlight as part of our Big Thank You.
Jayne Kirk is the manager at the Well Pharmacy in Lochgelly. She has been working on the frontline since the start of the outbreak to make sure patients in the area are able to access their prescriptions.
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Hide AdHer team includes dispensers and delivery drivers, who have organised Nomad packs- blister packs of medication for patients – and juggled a lot of responsibility.
She said: “The first week of the lockdown was an absolute nightmare as the pile of prescriptions from the surgery was massive.
“I had staff were self-isolating and we were working right up to eight o’clock at night because the workload was so large. We also had to do several deep cleans of the pharmacy because we had patients who had come in with suspected COVID-19.
“It really was tough – some nights I was going home in tears because of it all.”
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Hide AdThe team also had to contend with abuse from some patients waiting on prescriptions.
“There is still a lot of work to be done as the pile of prescriptions is still very large, and we are dealing with a lot of things that we don’t normally do as surgeries are shut – such as people coming in with injuries that they do not know how to deal with.”
“But, we have actually been quite lucky as there has been no issues with PPE and as things are easing off we are settling back to almost as normal as it gets.”
Jayne and her partner, who is a bus driver, have adapted to working on the frontline.
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Hide AdJayne added: “When you deal with it day in and day out, you just get on with it.
“My family are more concerned for me - I am taking all the proper precautions. You can’t live your life worrying about it, but I just can’t wait for all the restrictions to be lifted and to get back to normal.”
» To nominate someone for our Big Thank You please email [email protected]
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