Power outage costs pharmacy thousands

Originally written by TIANA RAY

A POWER outage caused disruption to the central business district on Friday and has cost one business thousands of dollars.

The outage was caused when contractors, who were working on the Percy St beautification process, were preparing the site on the corner of Percy and Henty streets, beside the Bendigo Bank.Water seepage caused land to subside, which consequently caused the power to be cut at about 10.30am.Initially 2900 customers were affected, but all but six customers had their power back on by 1pm.The six Percy St businesses affected were from Portland Florists to Alex Cancian Menswear, who did not regain power until about 7pm. The most affected business was Portland Guardian Pharmacy, where managing pharmacist Sam Wasif had to throw out all the refrigerated medication, because it could not be stored without refrigeration for more than six hours.Some of the medication cost more than $1000 per box, and Mr Wasif said he would be seeking compensation for the lost medication that totalled more than $10,000.“This is ridiculous, it seems to happen every three months in Portland, we need to have a back-up plan for these kind of situations,” Mr Wasif said.Because of the power outage, Portland Guardian Pharmacy was without computers, meaning the pharmacists had to hand write all the prescription labels and had to get customers to return later for their repeat prescription forms.It also disrupted the Webster pack system and the staff were unable to use the till or EFTPOS systems.The store was also unable to order stock, because they were without both the Internet and telephone, meaning they will not be able to restock until Tuesday.The store usually has around 250 customers per day, but was extremely quiet due to there being no lights attracting customers in.

MANAGING pharmacist of Portland Guardian Pharmacy, Sam Wasif was furious on Friday when he had to throw out about $10,000 worth of medication when the power went out in Percy Street.Picture: EBONY YUILL 080620ey08

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