It starts in November and it always feels too early but the fact is 3 weeks of weekly medication have to be delivered, to those that can cope with this, a full week before Christmas day.  And so…Operation Blister Pack Christmas begins. Never underestimate this task because, ten days before Christmas when these packs are due to be ready, the dispensary goes berserk.  That day is today…..the scripts were tripping off the printer all day long, lots of people suddenly need their medication,  not just today but within the hour.  How can that be? What has happened?  No flu epidemic,  no snow in Devon (that was 7 years ago…snow plus swine flu…and is another story). Can it be down to a spell of cold weather? The jury is out for me and I am happy to receive any answers.

So here we are, extra packs to prepare, everyone ordering their meds now instead of over the next three weeks and a tripling of people desperate for meds. One surgery is upset we are ordering pack scripts early.  Team humour is required at such times and the highlight today was undoubtedly when my dispenser took 5 minutes downtime to view cctv and prove to herself that the customer who collected her script Monday but denied it on tuesday was recorded doing so….dispenser 1, customer 0. Who knew cctv would be so useful…we only installed it to detect thieves and villains (yes the gun point hold up for EHC is also another story) not realising it would be so dementia friendly. By closing time one customer was in for the third time today and still holding out for a script for her pregabalin which the GP refused to release……. but at least my dispenser gets to remain sane for another day thanks to cctv.