“We are working hard in the background,” said owner and pharmacist Megan Hamilton. “All things considered, things are going well. Basically, our staff is working hard and are able, so far, to still provide service. We are still getting prescriptions out and everything from the front. We are still operating at full service, and that is a success in my books.”
Hamilton said in mid-March, around the time the local community student group cancelled their trip to Italy and the province was talking school closures, they started looking at the situation and making changes. One of the first was to expand their delivery service. They had delivered prescriptions for some clients before, but they began offering delivery of all items.
Within the store, they began working on the social distancing issue. With people expected to stay two metres apart, staff measured out areas for customers to stand and marked them out with tape. This held up for a week or two, but Hamilton said it did not work out ultimately.
“It was very difficult to limit the number of people in the store and maintain social distancing. We really had to go all or nothing to maintain that. Especially with people waiting for prescriptions, trying to stay two metres apart was hard. With the tape, it was hard because people and staff had to access items. It was not effective. It put a lot of stress on staff to maintain that social distance.”
Eventually, they moved to a different format. They limit the numbers in the store at any time, and customers tell front staff what they need. The staff collect it and the whole transaction takes place at the front counter. Staff are behind protected screens at the front as well, which helps mitigate risk further.
Not everything is perfect. As Hamilton admits, for the pharmacy staff at the back, where they dispense the medications, keeping two metres apart is impossible, as there simply is not that much space. She added she is looking at other ways to cut the risk down. For example, some staff have been taking their breaks in their cars.
Overall, she said her staff at the store deserve an enormous amount of credit for what they have done.
“Absolutely,” Hamilton said. “They were doing a great job before and they are working really hard now.”
As the back is now closed off to the public, it is important to remind everyone who is back there. As well as Hamilton herself, working shorter hours due to maternity leave, there are pharmacists Lois Clark and Marlee Stewart. Pharmacy graduate Renee McCallum is completing her internship, and because of  the complications with her schooling due to coronavirus, she is in the process of working out a conditional license. Plans are for her to continue at Hazlewood’s in the long run. There are also Erin Wanner, Janet Hamilton and Lorraine Brannan as pharmacy assistants.
There have been challenges getting enough pharmacists for all of the shifts. Hamilton said she has had to hunt a few relief pharmacists down and there have been three show up so far for causal shifts. All of them work regularly elsewhere. Leanne Gates of Glenboro, Paras Patel of Brandon and Dawhi Salih, also of Brandon have been godsends during a busy period.
Hamilton gives high marks in particular to the front staff. Susan Walker, Kerry McRuer, Sandy Joye and Michelle Armstrong have been working hard running back and forth from customers to products. They recently added Camryn Clyne and Jordan Smith to the team. Hamilton said they needed more people, as they are quite busy.
“Each transaction requires more work. They have to get orders, go pick the items, ring them through. Even if you are doing the same amount in a day, it takes more work to do it.”
As for when the drug store might return to normal, Hamilton said it would depend on the situation. She is keeping an eye on the public health orders, watching the updates, and getting information from their pharmacist association. They go on a week-to-week basis, and everything will be based on what is best.
“It has been a challenge,” she explained, “but we are working on it. Like all of the businesses in town, we just desperately want everyone to be safe and healthy.”

by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff