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Eveline van der Poort, Pharmacist’s Assistant at Mediq Apotheek Ommoord

Eveline works at the very first Mediq Apotheek and has experienced the total transition from focusing on patients to focusing on customers from start to finish. "Every pharmacist’s assistant has heard customers complain about having to wait too long at the counter. Fortunately, that’s now a thing of the past at Mediq Apotheek. And that makes my job a lot more enjoyable."

5 questions for ...

How did you end up with Mediq?

"I have worked as a pharmacist’s assistant since 1988. The pharmacy where I work now is my third employer. I’ve always heard about new positions by word of mouth. The most important thing to me is the atmosphere at the specific pharmacy and whether it was located in the neighbourhood where I live. We were told in early 2005 that we had been selected as the so-called ‘pharmacy of the future’. We’d never heard of the name Mediq Pharmacy at that time and only found out that it would be the new name for our pharmacy on the day before the opening."

Can you explain a bit about what your positions entails?

"I really enjoy working with patients, in other words the customers. And I enjoy this aspect of my work even more within the Mediq formula. We have a reception counter where every customer is welcomed the second they walk in the door. Customers who come to have a prescription filled for the first or second time are directed to the standing or sitting counter. We take more time for these customers. Customers who come to buy something or collect a repeat prescription are in and out in a matter of minutes. I won’t say that we are always 100% successful, but the through flow of customers is much better than it used to be. It is a large and busy pharmacy. On a regular working day we have between eight and nine assistants on duty. We have rotating activities. You actually fill prescriptions throughout the day. And we do both the back and front office activities for a half day every day. So actually you do something different every day. The variety of doing something different every day is what I like most about my work."

What makes your work at Mediq interesting?

"Every pharmacist’s assistant has heard customers complain about having to wait too long at the counter. Fortunately, that’s now a thing of the past at Mediq Pharmacy. And that’s nice. But, in the beginning, customers did have to get used to the fact that we no longer have a number machine. And people still comment on how nice our pharmacy looks. I recently overheard two ladies saying to each other that they always receive such friendly service at our pharmacy. That’s what makes my job enjoyable and rewarding. The robot also really appeals to people. You have to see it as a large wall of cupboards with a robot arm that moves back and forth behind it. The arm can move in every direction and makes sure that the prescriptions are filled quickly."

How have you been able to develop your professional and personal skills at Mediq so far?

"Only the exterior walls of the pharmacy have remained the same. But everything on the inside has changed, including our working method. We were able to practice working with the robot. We also received training courses on customer focus, communications and routing. We now do things very differently than before. The Mediq formula really appeals to me."

What is your personal career ambition?

"You agree on the general terms of employment once. So that includes matters such as your salary. But once you actually start working, the most important thing is whether or not you can get on well with your colleagues. You have to work together well as a team and that requires a good and fun working atmosphere. You have to work as a team to get the job done. You’ll always have a standard level of employee turnover. In the past we sometimes had more than one colleague leaving at once, but fortunately our team is now reasonably stable."