Newport Pharmacy: Providing Caring and Personalised Service
Husband-and-wife team Dorothy and David Tran are the friendly local pharmacists you’ll find at Newport Pharmacy.
Australian-Vietnamese Dorothy had wanted to be a pharmacist since primary school, thanks to an older family friend and role model.
At university, she met David, a pharmacy student, while she herself studied pharmaceutical science and worked in research at an automotive refinishing business, before returning to university to study pharmacy.
“Our goal was always to own a pharmacy together and in 2014 the opportunity came up to take over the existing Newport Pharmacy,” explains Dorothy. “We liked that it was an established local pharmacy in a shopping strip and it was close to our home in Maribyrnong.”
Newport Pharmacy has been on the same site in Mason Street for close to fifty years. As a result, many customers are long-time residents and the pharmacy is an integral part of Newport life.
“Newport has been so welcoming to us from the start. Our neighbour Eddie the butcher would drop in for a chat and John and Nancy Merlino from the fruit shop would come to check on me when it was winter and dark at night,” smiles Dorothy.
Dorothy finds it really rewarding to be a local pharmacist; to be able to know the customers, their daily lives and to support the best health outcomes for the local community.
“When customers come in, there’s always someone here who knows them by name. People pop in to say hi, checking on the staff and asking after my three kids.
“We deliver medications to elderly and disabled customers who can’t get out and because of COVID-19, we started offering a local delivery service to more people.
“I love being able to provide a personalised service to people, to get to know them and their health. I don’t think I would want to work anywhere else.”
