Buddy story · Supply
The winter of the shortage
Two Irish members who got through a supply gap by pooling information about which pharmacies had what, and being extremely careful about how they shared it.
- Paired
- November 2024
- Cadence
- Weekly
- Status
- ongoing
The careful part matters. It would have been easy for this to become a swap-shop, and both of them were clear from the start that they would share what a pharmacy told them and nothing else. No medication changed hands, no arrangements were made, and both say plainly that they would have refused if asked.
What they did instead was mundane and effective: ring earlier, ask the pharmacist rather than the counter, get the prescription in before the last week, and know which strengths are actually affected rather than assuming everything is. That is now in shortages and substitutions.
Bea had a gap of nine days regardless. Lark did not. Neither thinks that difference was skill.
We shared what the pharmacist said. We never shared anything else, and we would have said no if asked, and we were asked once.
I did everything right and still had nine days without. Somebody else did nothing different and was fine. That is supply, not virtue.