McKeevers Chemists pharmacy group have scooped up the Community Pharmacy Covid Champions of the Year Award at a recent gala ceremony in Belfast.  McKeevers Chemists are fast becoming one of Northern Ireland’s largest and fastest growing community-based pharmacy groups with stores across Northern Ireland, England and the Republic of Ireland.

 

Reacting to the award, Paul McKeever, Managing Director said, ‘At McKeevers we pride ourselves as being actively involved in, and at the heart of the communities we serve. In addition to core pharmacy services such as dispensing medications and providing healthcare advice we provide extended services in store, to a large number of Nursing and Residential Homes and Supported Living facilities.’

 

‘This award is a recognition from our industry peers of the huge effort our entire team put in, both customer facing and indeed behind the scenes as we reacted to the Covid pandemic.  Whilst many workplaces closed during the pandemic, pharmacies remained open as an essential service.’

 

‘At McKeevers we put measures in place to provide the same high level of healthcare throughout the pandemic.   Patients were concerned about how they would get their medication, particularly those in vulnerable / shielding categories.  Less face-to-face interaction has been one of the toughest hurdles for us as we are a very customer and community-focused pharmacy. However, we swiftly adopted new ways of working and new ways of serving the community.’

 

‘Our home delivery service expanded rapidly, with many customers having shop items delivered as well as prescriptions. We introduced measures to deliver medication in a safe and contactless way to ensure customers had the same access to medicines they always had. Our staff worked around the clock to deal with the workload, with some branches opening every day and many had late night openings.’

 

‘In March 2021, all our branches got involved in the vaccination program and delivered over 14,000 Covid-19 Vaccines from first jab to booster vaccinations.  We offered on site vaccination services to workplaces, including large manufacturing facilities and as the world opened up again and normality returned we added new Travel Vaccination Services and Fit to Fly tests.’

 

Concluding Mr McKeever added, ‘Our entire team have been amazing, from those in our warehouses, delivery drivers, retail teams and Pharmacists to those in our Head Office.  This has been a real team effort and I am extremely proud of them and the way they all adopted to changing demand and changing customer needs.  At McKeevers Chemists we pride ourselves as being at the heart of the communities we serve, and this award really does recognise that we are no ordinary pharmacy and that we go above and beyond to ensure the customer really does come first.  Our team make that possible every day.’