Fintan Moore has an electrifying experience in preparation for a power cut
For years, I’ve often debated with myself whether or not to get a backup generator for the pharmacy in case of a prolonged power outage. Especially as winters approached, I tended to do a little bit of research into options, but then get busy with the day-to- day work and never actually follow through by buying something. My hand finally got forced a few weeks ago because the ESB gave me a week’s notice that they would be doing upgrade works on cables in our area, and the shop would be without power from 9.00am to 5.00pm. In a lot of ways, it would have been simpler to just stay closed for the period of the blackout, but instead I decided to use it as an exercise in how to cope with it.
I bought a Champion 3.5kw dual- fuel generator from a company called Jamisons in Lisburn, who helpfully delivered it within 48 hours. It cost about £900 Stg, weighs 39kg, is roughly two-foot cubed in size, and can run using either propane or petrol. I had wrongly assumed that standard patio gas cylinders like the ones you use for barbecues would be compatible, but it needs a larger size cylinder, which has a different fitting. I couldn’t get a bigger cylinder in time, so I ran it using petrol and a 5 litre jerrycan kept it powered for the day.
I was able to leave it running in the back yard behind the pharmacy, with extension cables leading inside.
Overall, the experiment went off alright, but I hit a few speedbumps. There is a limited number of appliances you can run simultaneously, so I tried to narrow it down to the essentials. Normally, the kettle is my top priority but the energy required to run a kettle made it a device-non- grata for the day. The medicines fridge was second on the list, and that was fine. The till, receipt printer, scanner and credit card machine all went into one four-gang power block, which worked but the broadband in the area got knocked offline for the first couple of hours so we couldn’t take credit card sales.
The dispensary got tricky for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the day before the power cut, I was trying to simplify how many power cables were running to various sockets, so I plugged a PC, an A4 printer, a label printer, a scanner, a modem and a phone all into a multi-plug extension lead. This wasn’t one of my smarter moves, and when I plugged the extension lead into a socket, the power surge permanently banjaxed the PC. To TouchStore’s eternal credit, they went above and beyond to get a replacement PC out to me, and up- and-running the same day.
On the day of the power cut, I carefully added enough necessary devices one at a time, and we were able to process prescriptions, and I accessed Healthmail on my phone to see what new prescriptions were coming in. I used battery-powered floodlights for lighting to reduce the load on the generator. Our Internet- based phonelines wouldn’t work with the broadband down, and still didn’t work even when the broadband returned, which makes no sense to me but was actually useful to keep the workload down. The day was warm so we survived without heaters. And we even coped without tea.
Change the dynamic
There can understandably be a degree of friction at times in the relationship between employers and locums, even though there is a mutual dependency in that relationship. When there’s a good equilibrium in the market, everything tends to tick along
Overall, the experiment went off alright, but I hit a few speedbumps
reasonably well but that can easily change, especially whenever there is an undersupply of locums or of work. Like in many other facets of life, Covid amplified the problems that can exist, especially with the dynamic-pricing model used for a lot of bookings, which sees rates fluctuate widely in times of scarcity or oversupply. When travel was curtailed, a lot of pharmacy owners and regular employees cancelled holidays, reducing the requirement for locums, and this had the effect of pushing rates down to levels that were insultingly low.
When travel reopened and locums were needed again, the rates rocketed exorbitantly. There are still employers and locums who will argue about the rights and wrongs of all this, but in my opinion, it isn’t healthy to leave this issue purely to ‘market forces’. I think there should be a set bracket of rates, with a respectful floor rate as a minimum acceptable figure below which no job is advertised, and an upper limit doing the same.
51st State
Donald Trump made a lot of headlines when he suggested that Canada become the 51st state of the USA, but there are times I wonder if Ireland has already staked a claim to the title. We’ve a long track record of scoffing at the antics of Americans and then adopting them — such as extravagant St Patrick’s Day parades, Halloween costumes, and Bud Lite.
A few years ago I remember thinking that gender-reveal parties were the dumbest of dumb ideas that I’d heard of in a long time, then a while back I was talking to a woman in Dublin whose friend was having one. Apparently, accidents at gender- reveal parties kill more people than sharks, so maybe evolution will sort it out. But the real American killer we import and dive into headfirst is every possible kind of junkfood — slushies, soft drinks, energy drinks, doughnuts, pizzas, microwave ready meals, cookies, high-sugar breakfast cereals, and any other highly-processed low- nutrition crap that can be packed
and labelled. And this tidal wave of edible garbage gets normalised for each new generation, so that many kids grow up unaware that food can actually be food.
Fintan Moore graduated as a pharmacist in 1990 from TCD and currently runs a pharmacy in Clondalkin. His email address is: greenparkpharmacy@gmail.com.
