NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s Senior Management Team visited a community pharmacy in Ayr to thank the staff for their work supporting patients during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Community pharmacies continue to provide a vital service to the people of Ayrshire and Arran, providing essential medicines and advice to patients.

Chief Executive, John Burns; Director of Pharmacy, Roisin Kavanagh; and Medical Director, Dr Crawford McGuffie, visited Ogg’s Pharmacy in Ayr to meet the team.

Roisin Kavanagh said: “Staff in our community pharmacies are doing a fantastic job ensuring the people of Ayrshire and Arran have access to medicines, information and advice. We wanted to thank them for their hard work and support on the frontline against COVID-19.”

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacies across the country have experienced tremendous pressure due to a significant increase in demand for prescriptions - around 40 per cent across Scotland.

In addition, there has been increased demand for over-the-counter medicines and other products.

Roisin adds: “Many of our pharmacies have had to amend opening hours to deal with the backlog of work and ensure the pharmacies were deep cleaned. However, most have returned to their usual opening hours.

“Pharmacies have social distancing guidance in place. So customers will have noticed that access has been restricted in order to ensure the two metre distance between customers can be maintained.”

To help support the community pharmacies, please avoid entering them if you are showing symptoms of COVID-19, as you would any other healthcare setting.

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