When pharmacist Riz Gumpac moved to Ucluelet two years ago, it was a move he thought would be temporary.
“I did not expect myself to be here two years later. This is very remote for me. I’m a city boy. But then I just fell in love with the community when I was here. The people are very nice. They’re very welcoming. They wanted me to stay, so I took the opportunity,” he told the BC Pharmacy Association.
Now, after sticking it out through the pandemic, he’s become a cornerstone of health for the town.
“We are very strained in our health care resources. When doctors are unavailable, we become a resource for people to talk to,” Gumpac told Westerly News.
“We are so fortunate to have him on our team,” said Ucluelet co-op general manager Laurie Gehrke to Westerly News.
“It’s been a short two years, but he’s made a huge impact. People put a huge amount of trust in his knowledge,” she said.
While they’ve undoubtedly put trust in his knowledge, the thing that has really stood out is his level of care and dedication.
Because of limited healthcare resources in the area, the co-op team is pushed to practice to the fullest scope they can offer. They often work seven days a week.
Every day that Gumpac works, he gives his all to his patients.
One patient recently detailed an amazing experience she’d had with him while nominating him for the store’s Excellence Award for Outstanding Service.
“I chased her down an aisle just to see how she was doing, to tell her more about the conditions she had, and she was very appreciative,” he said.
But, his patients clearly weren’t satisfied with just getting him store-wide recognition. Multiple Ucluelet residents nominated him for the BC Pharmacy Association Pharmacy Excellence Awards.
They must have also shared some pretty moving accounts of their experiences with him—because he won.
The award may have come as no big surprise to his patients, but it was definitely exciting for Gumpac.
“It’s an honour for me to receive the New Practitioner Award. I would like to thank the whole community here for welcoming me here warmly.”
He gave a special shout-out to the town’s Filipino community, who had made sure to help keep him healthy during the pandemic too.
“Thank you for always being there for me and for always feeding me, especially on those days that I couldn’t cook because I was too busy,” said Gumpac.
In today’s world of healthcare stress, this is a really wholesome story to see. And it sounds like Gumpac will be staying in the community for years to come.
“I started learning how to surf. Most of the time, I do hikes, and I’ll do some biking here too. Just having talks with the local people is a good way to connect with them and the area where I am living in. Basically digging your roots,” he said.
He has even convinced a fellow University of Saskatchewan classmate, pharmacist Mandy Turnbull, to join him at the co-op.
They’ll be continuing to delve into the community together, and helping to provide the essential healthcare people so desperately need.
“It’s important to understand the patient population wherever you want to practice and focus on how you want to uplift your community through your services.”
He’s most certainly uplifted the people around him, and in turn, they seem to have done the same.
