A Waterford pharmacy managing director, Ronan Mulligan, has warned that pharmacies nationwide are 'at bare bones', and has pleaded for people to remain patient.
Ronan Mulligan is the Managing Director of the Mulligans Pharmacy chain in Waterford.
Mulligans have decided to extend their booster vaccination clinic in Waterford City on South Parade for the rest of the week due to significant demand.
However, with demands for Covid vaccinations, prescriptions, antigen testing and other run-of-the-mill services, Mr. Mulligan has warned people that they will likely experience longer waiting times than usual.
"Pharmacies are extremely busy - so I'd ask people to be extremely patient. The 5-10 minute wait for a prescription is going well into half an hour, even into an hour in some circumstances. It's because there is a lot of demand for other services, vaccinations, antigen testing - it's extremely difficult. We too have staff who have Covid. We too have staff who are close contacts. We're literally down to bare bones, so if people could bear with us - or any other pharmacy. Do that if you can, just be patient."
Vaccination centre
Mr. Mulligan says that having opened their vaccination clinic at South Parade earlier this week and seeing the levels of demand for boosters - Mulligans Pharmacy took the decision to extend the facility out for a week.
"We opened our vaccine clinic early today, and I think at this stage, we've had about 220-230 people gone through. We didn't anticipate this kind of demand, so we've decided to extend it for the rest of the week. A lot of this is on account of people coming home for Christmas and just wanting to share time with their families. The demands over Christmas have been literally exponential. We decided to open the vaccination centre in South Parade to accomodate that demand."
The facility will operate from 9 to 5.30 each day and will be open to all relative age cohorts, with a particular emphasis placed upon those who recieved a Janssen vaccine during the summer months.
"The hours of the operation will be 9 in the morning until 5.30. We certainly will have 2 to 3 pharmacists on duty delivering the Pfizer vaccine to all the age cohorts that are mentioned. Especially, the over-16s to early 30s who recieved the Janssen vaccine."
Antigen testing
Demands for antigen testing have also skyrocketed over the festive period, with people taking precautions before going to events and visiting their loved ones.
Mulligan says its hoped that there will be adequate supplies to help meet these demands.
"Most of the stores were opened yesterday, and they were all snapped up. People are buying five or ten at a time. Families are together for Christmas, there is a big demand. All of our stores across the city will have adequate supplies when the bulk of the city opens its doors again."
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