A Pharmacy Technician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, is working harder and longer shifts in a Covid-19 ward as he aims to help patients in their time of need.
Harry Ritchie, who makes up and discharges prescriptions for patients at the hospital, cannot go into the rooms of the patients he prescribes drugs for due to the high risk of infection.
Harry now has to go through a system of administering the drugs through a main pharmacy store, which has led to even more paperwork and a delay in prescribing at a time when the hospital is getting increasingly busier.
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Mr Ritchie said: “This system is making it a lot more difficult because you can usually get the drugs to the patients quickly, but now we have to go through a main store, so your day is a lot longer and awkward but people are dying so you don’t want to complain.”
Harry also faces a high risk of infection as he works in ‘pharmacy pods’ which are small rooms (roughly 12 x 6 feet in space) where technicians prepare prescriptions.
Working in this enclosed space with a higher demand for drugs makes it almost impossible to abide by the two metre social distancing rules - and this is made even more challenging with the hospital now seeing a shortage in PPE equipment.
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George Mackay, who plays football with Harry, said: “He’s never once moaned about being in danger or the long hours.”
Harry stresses that he is not the only one putting himself at risk as there are other key workers who he feels do not get the praise they deserve.
He said: “The nurses deserve the praise they get, but there are so many other people who are working in the hospital that get forgotten about like the cleaners and porters who are working every day to make sure everyone else is safe.”
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