So, I'm working Christmas Day. I've known it for a while. Actually, since February when I asked my boss if I could have the 25th, 26th and 1 Jan.

Why in the hell offer to work Christmas Day? In all honesty, I enjoy it. My Christmas-celebrating family is all overseas or interstate (which is out of reach, this year), and having lived well beyond my means for the last five-or-so weeks the money's a bonus. Being Bar-Mitzvahed also helps to rationalise it, too.

Who needs a pharmacy on Christmas Day? There's a lot of indigestion out there from about 2pm; and a fair number of over-50s have been known to confuse this with a heart attack. Allergies to packing materials are also pretty common. Sun-burn is all too common in this neck of the ocean (I work in a holiday 'destination', after all). But, for most people, here's what Public Holiday and Sunday Pharmacies provide:

"Hi, I've got XX symtom, and I just want to know if I need to see a doctor?"

Around these here parts, it's an expensive exercise to see doctor on a Sunday. A few months ago the only all-hours place for an hour in either direction closed down. There is a group who do 24-hr house calls, but they charge like a wounded bull (for top-notch service, mind) and the wait is usually a few hours. The hospital, not surprisingly, is quite effective at prioritising MIs and the like, but if you're a Cat-5, feel free to join the 5 hr queue to be spoken with. Here at the Pharmacy, we're open 14 hours a day. You might wait twenty minutes to talk to me if it's busy as hell and you look comfortable, and I'll be genuinely apologetic if it takes that long.

Being able to prioritise is a big deal; the ED is damned good at it when it comes to medical emergencies, but there's zero differentiation from one Cat-5 to the next. Here we at least offer some sort of advice, because more often than not, the kind of things people are asking about at 8pm on a Sunday night actually need to be seen by a doctor. Not necessarily today, probably not tomorrow and rarely by an Emergency physician in the next thirty minutes.

Little Frankie's eczema is pretty bad, yeah, so we can give him a wee steroid cream to tide you over until, say, Wednesday, when your GP's receptionist decides that there's a spot free. No, it doesn't look infected.

You even throw out a cheeky wee safety net about infections and the like and away they roll, quick fix in hand.

In my opinion, the lay public isn't fantastic at triaging themselves or their kids, and why should they be? From Joe Public's point of view, there's not much difference between a kid who's cranky with Chicken Pox and a kid who's suffering a deterioration of consciousness from post-VZV Encephalitis.

So, people come to the pharmacy because;

Have a safe Christmas, all.