Health Hut: Team effort to aid community and locum pharmacist unable to return from Colombia

Nadeem Shah, who runs the pharmacy, has praised his team for working shifts at various days and times and its trusted volunteers so patients can get what they need, particularly those in self-isolation and/or classed as vulnerable.

They are also missing a team member at this time. The locum pharmacist is Jenny Cardenas Avila, who is a Colombian and Spanish national but has permanent residency in the UK.

She had arranged for a long time to visit family in Bogota, Colombia, from late February to March 30, but she was unable to get a flight back to the UK before the countrywide lockdown.

Nadeem said: “At normal times, everyone is working to their best capacity, but you have to go beyond that in times of crisis.

“Once it became clear that hand sanitiser gel was going to be in very high demand, I managed to get the essential ingredients at a decent price before they were out of stock and we made it ourselves so it could be given to our community and staff at a fraction of cost or free.

“Some of it was donated to local health centres.

“The existing health needs of people in self-isolation are still there and the volunteers, including from Morpeth Rotary, have helped with deliveries in the town to enable staff to continue delivering in other areas such as Longhorsley and Widdrington.

“Jenny is an integral part of the team and we all miss her greatly.”

“The people who regularly come into the pharmacy when she is there have been asking about her and we’ve explained the circumstances as to why she is not working here at the moment.”

Jenny started working in the UK six years ago and had been at the Health Hut for 12 months when she travelled to Colombia.

She said: “Bogota went on lockdown a few days before the whole country did and so that meant flights were restricted in the short window I had to try to get one.

“I was getting nowhere with calling the airline, so I went to the airport and was put on a list for being added to the commercial flights that could still leave.

“But I was at number 90 and only a few people per day were being added. Also, the flight would have been to Paris in France, which was also in lockdown, and I would have been alone in that country if I wasn’t allowed into the UK. So I decided to return to my family.

“I did speak with the British Embassy, explaining that I have permanent residency in the UK and I am a key worker, but was told there was nothing it could do for me.

“Although I can now help to look after my parents, there are others who can help them and I was willing to return to work in the UK to help patients and re-join the great team at Health Hut.

“I enjoy working there, the pharmacy is well-liked in the community and we all care a lot about our patients.”

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We are working round the clock to support British travellers in returning home.”