UCD FoundationA group of UCD medical students are spearheading an initiative to deliver medicines to people who are self-isolating at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been an incredible response to the scheme, which is coordinated through the COVID-19 Medicine Deliveries Facebook group. There are already some 750 volunteers and 250 participating pharmacies nationwide, and the network is growing day by day.
The group is calling for volunteers studying medicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy and other healthcare courses. However, if demand continues to increase they will expand the volunteer base beyond healthcare disciplines. Their primary aim is to connect students with their local pharmacies to help get medication to those in need at this difficult time, when many are unable to leave their homes.
David Shanahan, a qualified pharmacist now studying medicine at UCD, is one of the organisers. “It’s very enlightening that people are taking this seriously and they want to do something about it, it’s just amazing,” he says.
In a video for the Irish Times, fellow pharmacist, medical student and co-organiser Margaret Ellen Clerkin talks about the project while out and about delivering medicines in Dublin.