Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Awards for chemists who faced ‘Christmas times 50’ when Bridge of Earn surgery closed

Delivery driver Peter Thomson, manager Andrew Watson and pharmacy assistants Jaime Rodger and Nicola Smith have celebrated the win.
Delivery driver Peter Thomson, manager Andrew Watson and pharmacy assistants Jaime Rodger and Nicola Smith have celebrated the win.

The team at an increasingly-busy Perthshire pharmacy has been awarded two top prizes after stepping in to provide emergency health advice to 3,500 people when their GP surgery was removed.

At the beginning of September, Bridge of Earn’s GP surgery ceased operations and thousands of patients were redistributed to practices in Perth and Kinross.

Six months later, Bridge of Earn is still without a surgery, although NHS bosses are revamping a disused nursing base to provide a range of basic services.

This has left the bustling village without any form of primary healthcare facility, with Davidson’s Chemist left as the only local health specialist.

Despite only having eight working days’ notice that the medical centre was to close, the team at the Main Street pharmacy have stepped up to the mark as the first port of call for villagers’ healthcare queries.

Staff have been working overtime and teams from as far as Dunkeld have travelled to Bridge of Earn after their own shifts have finished to help deliver frontline advice to residents left without a local doctor.

For their efforts, the team were awarded the Working in Partnership Award and Pharmacy of the Year Award at the Scottish Pharmacist Awards this weekend, presented by Perth comic Fred MacAuley.

The team were presented with a pair of trophies.

Judges at the ceremony on Saturday described the work as “an exceptional project undertaken in exceptional circumstances.”

“The response from the pharmacy team was outstanding. Key to their success was the existing goodwill and respect for the pharmacy, leadership by the Branch Manager and collaboration with a range of stakeholders within and beyond the profession,” they added.

Pharmacy manager Andrew Watson said: “When the practice closed, it was a big shock and there were a lot of anxieties.

“We wanted to allay the concerns so we worked with NHS Tayside to see what support we could provide.

“At first it was like Christmas times fifty. It was the busiest we’ve ever been.

“We had pharmacists from other branches coming along to help clear the backlog on top of their own work. Some staff would have been signed off with stress but everyone here has stepped up massively and rolled up their sleeves.

“We’re really happy and proud of the team.

“This has helped us highlight and make people aware that pharmacies are the first port of call for healthcare. We don’t just put names on boxes, we can provide some treatment and refer you to the right places.”