A Douglas pharmacy hit by the carpark fire is now delivering medication to patients

A Douglas based pharmacy that has been closed since last Saturday's fire has been delivering medication to its patients in need.

Michael O'Connor of Pharmacy First Plus, based in Douglas Village Shopping Centre, revealed the pharmacy has turned to deliveries to ensure patients who require medicine from the pharmacy are not impacted.

He said the delivery service has been busy.

"We started deliveries on Tuesday and we didn't finish up until around 9pm last night.

"We're just trying to maintain as much of our customer base as possible and to facilitate people.

"They're worried about their own medication and we're trying to alleviate that and facilitate them as best we can," he added.

The pharmacy has been in business at the shopping centre since 1976, when it was established by Mr O'Connor's father.

He explained that there needs to be support for the existing tenants.

He also called for the elimination of parking charges in Douglas Village.

"That's 1,000 parking spaces gone as a result of the fire," he explained.

"The only spaces that are available now are those that are charging by the hour and that's a huge disincentive now to come into Douglas.

"There are other businesses in Douglas that are going to be impacted by the loss of parking spaces in the shopping centre," he added.

"They're going to start feeling that pain so for the area of Douglas, we need help from local government to alleviate as much of that pain as possible."

In terms of his own staff, Mr Connor said management was able to redeploy them and the pharmacy is taking calls on a mobile phone.

"We're lucky to have the support of another pharmacy in the group which are accommodating our staff.

"That has been a huge help to us and has allowed us to get up and running.

"We also got our phones diverted to a mobile early on Monday morning so we are taking calls and directing people on what they can do."