WITH PRECISION TO THE MILLIGRAM
We would like to tell you about the pharmacy premises, the daily work of pharmacists, and various processes that remain hidden from the everyday visitor, as well as how pharmacies operated in the city of Ogre. For us, accustomed to buying ready-made packages, this story reveals a completely different world. From ancient times, pharmacy visitors […]
We would like to tell you about the pharmacy premises, the daily work of pharmacists, and various processes that remain hidden from the everyday visitor, as well as how pharmacies operated in the city of Ogre.
For us, accustomed to buying ready-made packages, this story reveals a completely different world.
From ancient times, pharmacy visitors gladly relied on the pharmacist’s knowledge, who was even called a doctor, thus giving him as much importance as a real physician. The employees of Ogre pharmacy occasionally had to listen to an entire medical history to know what medicine to give in cases where there was no doctor’s prescription.
“Not everyone can work as a doctor, a nurse, or a pharmacist. The work of pharmacists requires precision down to the milligram, the ability to concentrate, to be perceptive, attentive, even meticulous. One must be able to read various handwritings; cleanliness and order must be second nature,” said Rasma Hartmane, the former head of Ogre pharmacy.
If a resident happened to encounter a less clearly written text, the joke known today was that it was a doctor’s handwriting, which could only be understood at the pharmacy, where they could decipher all sorts of hieroglyphs.
To avoid misunderstandings with doctor-prescribed recipes in the pharmacy, each doctor had their own stamp, and in moments when even a pharmacy employee couldn’t read it, the doctor himself had to be called. However, this rarely happened, as pharmacists were truly excellent handwriting readers.
20th century. 50. In those decades, the Ogre pharmacy used the so-called burette system or “pharmacy organ” for preparing medicines. At that time, it was a modern apparatus, rarely found in provincial pharmacies. Ready-made medicinal solutions of a specific concentration, located in glass containers, flowed through glass tubes resembling organ pipes into bottles, and even complex medicines could be prepared in a few minutes.
Almost everyone has heard the saying “weigh like in a pharmacy.” This is also related to the daily life of pharmacy employees, when hand scales were used to prepare powders, ointments, and medicines. With them, the smallest units could be weighed, but the greatest precision was needed when working with poisons. To make dosing easier, they were mixed with sugar before weighing.
In the pharmacy, there were labels on the cabinet with names of various substances, for example, “Heroica” and “Venera.” The first contained very potent substances, while the second contained poisons. Arsenic was stored separately in a locked compartment.
Pharmacies at that time were unimaginable without the preparation of sterile solutions. In Ogre pharmacy, a small glass cabinet was set up for this process, where solutions for injections were prepared. Distilled water, indispensable for medicine preparation, was obtained on-site in the pharmacy kitchen, where there was a boiler that automatically filled through pipes, as well as a cooler. All medicine bottles were also distilled, and there was a special electric drying boiler where they went during the process.
There was a separate room for storing medicines and dressing materials. On the walls were cabinets with revolving shelves, making it easy to place and then find what was needed. More than 2,000 different medicines were stored in the pharmacy. Many of them had a pungent smell, some were flammable, so it was important to know where to place them to prevent damage and ensure safety.
On the 3rd floor of the pharmacy was a dry room where medicinal herbs were dried and raw drugs were stored. Medicinal herbs played a very important role in medicine preparation at that time: historical sources indicate that in the 1950s, almost 40 percent of medicines were made from raw drugs.
In the 1950s, Ogre pharmacy had spacious basement premises, but city groundwater occasionally flooded the floor. Antibiotics and serums, which required low temperatures, were stored in the basement. Various ointments were kept in galvanized tin containers.
In the pharmacy courtyard, there was a warehouse where tons of chlorinated lime, gypsum, many oxygen cylinders, and packaging materials were stored.
Every month, 3 to 5 trucks with medicines and preparations were brought from the warehouses of the Main Pharmacy Administration to Ogre pharmacy, because in the 1950s, Ogre pharmacy served not only the city residents, the hospital, three sanatoriums, but also the pharmacy points of Ikšķile, Tīnūži, Krape, as well as the surrounding rural population.
To avoid pharmacy overload and visitor queues, in the 20th century 60. In the [unspecified] years, a pharmacy point was opened in Ogre Polyclinic, where ready-made medicines and those already prepared according to specific prescriptions could be purchased. Prescription medications could also be ordered at the polyclinic, but if a patient needed medicine urgently, the polyclinic would call the pharmacy, stating the composition of the medicine mentioned in the prescription. In a moment, by the time the patient reached the pharmacy, the medication would be ready.
However, the procedure from writing the prescription to handing over the medicine to the buyer was not simple. First, the prescription that arrived at the pharmacy was checked by a pharmacist, ensuring the physical, chemical, and pharmacological compatibility of the substances, as well as the allowed dosage sizes. If anything did not meet the requirements, it was immediately reported to the prescribing doctor to clarify the data. When everything met the requirements, the prescription was handed over to one of the assistants for medicine preparation. After that, the medicines went to the chemist-analysts, who carefully re-checked the composition and compliance with the prescription. And only then did the pharmacist dispense them to the buyer, re-checking the surname and repeating the usage instructions.
“A pharmacist must not make mistakes,” said pharmacy manager Valērija Jukmane, “because it can cost a life.” [“Padomju Ceļš”, October 17, 1967.] Pharmacist Vilma Roga, in turn, spoke about internal procedures: “Old pharmacists once taught me: check the label on the medicine bottle three times — the first time when you take the bottle from the shelf, the second time when you prepare the medicine, and the third time when you have put it back in its original place.” [“Padomju Ceļš”, July 7, 1984.]
This entire process took a maximum of two hours, but there were exceptions — if medicine had to be prepared for a child, it was made within half an hour. Employees also accommodated rural residents who had to catch public transport. The nature of the illness was taken into account, as was the practice of the polyclinic pharmacy, where medicine prescriptions were dictated over the phone.
Ogre Central Pharmacy also delivered medicines to homes upon request. This was done by both pharmacy employees and sometimes by students who came to help. For rural residents, medicines were often delivered by emergency medical personnel.
The Ogre district central pharmacy in the 20th century 60. century was one of the largest in the Riga department, as well as a methodological center. After the war, only three employees worked there, ten in the 1950s, but in 1967, there were 51 people, of whom visitors usually saw only two or three. The growth is also evidenced by the turnover of goods — from 2,100 rubles to three hundred thousand rubles per year.
Since the early 20th century 70. In the early [unspecified] years, when the Ogre knitwear factory began operations, the population significantly increased due to the influx of guest workers. At that time, the Ogre pharmacy served the hospital and sanatoriums with approximately 1000 beds, as well as the polyclinic, the railway workers’ prophylactic clinic, preschool institutions, both vocational technical schools in the city, and the nearest medical points. Furthermore, it was an on-call pharmacy, meaning that necessary items could be obtained at any time of day or night, even on Sundays. The pharmacy strongly felt the increase in population, receiving around 500 prescriptions daily.
“Scales in hand, and standing on your feet for all seven hours, you weigh, measure, mix, stir,” pharmacist Vilma Roga of the polyclinic pharmacy point once told the newspaper “Padomju Ceļš.”
Students from Ogre Secondary School participated extensively in auxiliary tasks, packaging medicines and performing sanitary work. The pharmacy premises had long become cramped and uncomfortable and were crying out for reconstruction.
In 1978, Ogre district pharmacies had dispensed medicines for 1,049,000 prescriptions. The turnover of goods was 773,000 rubles — medicines worth 13.63 rubles were dispensed per district resident, including children, which was a significant amount for those times. Almost ten years later, in 1987, district residents had already purchased medicines worth 819,000 rubles.
In 1979, there were ten pharmacies in Ogre district with 98 employees, of whom 14 were provisors, 30 were pharmacists, and two were nurses.
Since the early 1980s, pharmacy manager Rasma Hartmane, together with her deputy Dzidra Taranova, led classes for students of the medical stream at the production complex, introducing them to the daily life of pharmacy employees, providing insight into pharmacy, and also organizing practical sessions at the pharmacy. Every summer during the holidays, several students worked at the pharmacy as packagers, and some of them continued their studies at the Riga Medical Institute to work in a pharmacy after graduation.
Until 1982, Ogre Central Pharmacy was the only one in the city. When a second pharmacy opened at Padomju Prospekts 9 (now Mālkalnes Prospekts), it became possible to consider the reconstruction and adaptation of this pharmacy to accommodate a larger flow of customers and their needs.
In 1985, 11 pharmacies operated in Ogre district with 103 employees, of whom 52 were specialists with higher or secondary education, and almost half of the employees had 20 or more years of work experience.
The greatest workload in 1987, while Ogre Central Pharmacy was being reconstructed, fell on the pharmacy on Padomju (now Mālkalnes) Prospekts. The pharmacy point in the district polyclinic was still operating, and in September, a pharmacy kiosk was opened at Ogre railway station so that residents from the city center would not have to go to Padomju Prospekts. However, only medicines sold without a doctor’s prescription could be purchased at the kiosk. By paying 1.7 rubles (or 2 rubles if ordered by phone) and presenting a prescription, medicines and glasses could be received at home.
Although historical materials and periodicals show that during the Soviet years, the work and achievements of pharmacies, like everything else, were praised because everyone mostly fulfilled and overfulfilled the plan, the daily life and working conditions of pharmacists, even 50 years after the war, were quite harsh. For those who have not experienced the Soviet years, it is difficult to imagine that even plastic containers were scarce in an institution like a pharmacy.
“In the past, each pharmacy had its distinctive signatures, its labels. You look at the bottle and see which pharmacy the medicine was purchased from. Powders came in ordinary paper, as well as parchment and wax capsules. For us, only the first, which quickly absorbs moisture. Powders should already be industrially prepared; now we mix and prepare thousands. Soda and boric acid arrive in 40-kilogram bags, cotton wool in 50-kilogram bales. Try lifting them and then packaging them into 100-gram portions… Wrapping paper is missing, necessary measuring cups, flasks of the required volume are missing. Plastic containers—light, unbreakable—electronic scales, calculators seem like an unfulfillable dream. Oh dear! Yes, and medicines. I watch with sad eyes all that can be obtained at Moscow airport kiosks. It’s not right that the purchase of imported medicines is rapidly decreasing. But what if we ourselves cannot offer anything equivalent in return? Besides, if a medicine sits in cupboards for a couple of years, as they say, its production must be stopped. The mandatory assortment of medicines is completely absurd, yet inspectors still run their finger along (the list) and — God forbid! — if one of those specified in the list is missing. Medicines do age, just like everything else in this world.”
[R. Hartmane, “Padomju Ceļš”, August 30, 1988.]
“OGRE KANGARI” HIKING TRAIL
We invite you to explore the hiking trail to better discover the hills of Ogre. View the photo gallery and read the story on the museum's website or Facebook page. By looking at historical images, you can compare how the city has changed over time. We have marked the route in the "BalticMaps" map browser. The “GPX” file is convenient to use with the LVM GEO mobile app. The total length of the hiking trail marked on the map is 14 kilometers (7 kilometers in Pārogre and 7 kilometers in Ogre center and Jaunogre). The hiking trail winds through both the urban part of the city (with asphalt, cobblestone, and gravel surfaces) and green areas (park paths and pedestrian-trodden forest trails without special amenities).
