Firefighters have made more than 1,000 medication deliveries to 'at risk' individuals in Northamptonshire

More than 1,000 deliveries of essential medication have been delivered by firefighters to some of the most vulnerable people across the county.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) was asked to support the community resilience partnership response to the pandemic by aiding in pharmacy deliveries to those who are ‘shielding’ and need to stay at home as they are particularly at risk from Covid-19.

Having medication deliveries brought to their door, direct from dispensing GP practices and pharmacies, helps protect these people from needing to venture out because of necessity.

In total, firefighters from 11 of NFRS’ on-call fire stations have been called on to assist in the deliveries.

Support has also been provided by wholetime crews and members of NFRS’s Home Safety Team.

In rural areas, deliveries have been undertaken by on-call firefighters from their on-call stations while, in the main towns, the NFRS Home Safety Team has been co-ordinating deliveries.

Pharmacy deliveries are just one example of the ways in which NFRS has been supporting in the local response to Covid-19.

Anne-Marie King, Chief Officer, Pharmacy Northamptonshire, said: “Coronavirus caused a public health emergency and put extraordinary pressure upon community pharmacies.

"NFRS continue offering support to deliver prescriptions and this is enabling pharmacies to manage their workloads more effectively.

“The additional advice may have changed to keeping your distance, thinking of others and playing our part together but it still remains important to keep people safe.

"We can best achieve this by encouraging as many deliveries as possible from pharmacies and, without the help from volunteers such as NFRS, this would not be possible.”

Lisa Bryan, Prevention, Safeguarding & Partnerships Manager at NFRS, said: “Lockdown restrictions may have been eased by the government in some ways, but there are many particularly vulnerable people who are still shielding and for whom something like the delivery of medication is extremely important.

“We have been pleased to have been able to do our bit to help multi agency efforts to support people to stay safe during this time, having now passed the 1,000 delivery milestone, we can really see how important this contribution has been.”

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