Shoplifting and violence are becoming more common in pharmacies, says Community Pharmacy England, the representative body for community pharmacy owners.
Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said: โPharmacy teams are the backbone of community healthcare. They should never face any kind of abuse, racism, discrimination, threats, or violence just for doing their jobs. These findings reflect escalating abuse in one of the NHSโs most accessible frontline services and they show an urgent need for stronger system-wide protections. Pharmacy staff deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. We will continue to raise awareness and push for measures to keep pharmacy teams safe. Pharmacies have to be included on priority lists for protection and support and must remain safe spaces for both patients and the teams who serve them.โ
About the survey
The body points to a survey of more than 3,000 pharmacy premises. It found that more than half (55 per cent)ย of pharmacies had experienced verbal abuse in the preceding six months, withย three-quarters (75pc)ย of those experiencing it at least weekly, andย one-fifth (21pc) reporting it as a daily occurrence. Some six per cent of pharmacies reported physical assaults in the preceding six months, ranging from strangulation, pushing, punching, objects being thrown to attacks after closing time. The typical triggers for such violence according to the surveyors are prescription delays, medicine shortages, NHS interface failures, and service eligibility rules outside pharmacy control.
Background
The survey echoes other customer-facing occupations, such as the NHS generally, and transport; more on this link.
Right Care, Right Person
The national policy Right Care Right Person, whereby police will leave mental health cases to healthcare responders, despite its intent to provide appropriate care to those with mental health issues, is not working as intended, the London Assembly Health Committee has said in a letter to Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. The committee at its March 4 meeting held an evidence session about violence and abuse against healthcare staff in London, hearing from a panel including Iain Jones, Security Manager, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Committee chair Emma Best said: “Frontline NHS staff are doing extraordinary work in challenging circumstances, yet too many are being subjected to unacceptable levels of violence and abuse. We heard strong evidence that inconsistent police responses, gaps in training and resources for NHS security teams, and unresolved issues with the rollout of the โRight Care, Right Personโ strategy/initiative are placing additional pressure on healthcare workers and allowing dangerous situations to escalate.”
Transport
Transport for Londonโs (TfL) official figures of work-related violence and aggression towards transport workers almost certainly underreport the true scale of assaults, as many incidents go unreported, according to the London Assembly Transport Committee, after hearing evidence from transport workers. Committee chair Elly Baker said in an email to Andy Lord, TfL Commissioner: “Worryingly, we heard multiple accounts of the British Transport Police (BTP) taking hours to show up or not showing up at all.”
For staff to report an incident on the Underground can take 35 to 45 minutes of filling in the relevant forms, ‘and that can deter workers from reporting’, she wrote. She aired concerns of a TfL culture ‘which normalises assaults on transport workers and blames victims when incidents occur’. Some of those giving evidence disputed TfL’s ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to such crime. The committee heard of a lack of support for TfL contract workers, such as bus drivers, and taxi and private hire drivers, being self-employed. While Assembly members welcomed TfL’s March 12 summit on violence against staff, and a new five-year strategy to improve staff safety, the committee called it ‘essential that it translates into tangible action, particularly for staff who continue to face violence and aggression as part of their daily work’.
