Shortage of drugs sparks wave of violence at pharmacies trends now
The pharmacy shop looks like a bomb has hit it. Wrecked equipment and papers lie strewn about, a gaping hole is smashed in the window.
But it’s not due to a bomb blast — the damage is the result of a customer who’s gone berserk with rage. As three frightened female members of staff shelter behind the counter, he attacks two police officers with a broken chair.
This shocking incident, captured on video, happened early afternoon on the Monday before Christmas at Knights Pharmacy in Port Talbot, South Wales.
Worryingly, such violent incidents are becoming a daily reality for pharmacists and staff. Figures from the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP) show that more than three-quarters of its members reported regular verbal and physical abuse after the pandemic. Attacks rose three-fold over the Christmas period.
This shocking incident, captured on video, happened early afternoon on the Monday before Christmas at Knights Pharmacy in Port Talbot, South Wales
As frustration over a lack of GP appointments and prescription-drug shortages boils over into rage and violence, pharmacy staff are trapped on the frontline.
Community pharmacists — in particular small, independent businesses that are often family run — are already under pressure from soaring drug costs and drastic government underfunding, which means many are closing down, says pharmacist Mohammed Kolia, who is director of the Knights Pharmacy chain.
Others may have to reduce opening times to cut the spiralling cost of wages and heating — ‘which increases customer frustration even further’, says AIMP chief executive Leyla Hannbeck. ‘We are incredibly busy and under strain after years of underfunding, along with other serious pressures such as staff shortages.’
On top of that, some are having to pay for security, which only adds to their financial problems.
Mohammed Kolia has been forced to employ security staff at some of his branches.
‘One, in Cardiff, had a particularly bad abuse problem but, as soon as the security staff appeared, incidents dropped from daily to zero,’ he says. ‘Obviously, we have to pay for that.
‘As a large chain with some 1,000 employees, we can manage. But smaller chains and family-run pharmacies clearly can’t.’
This comes as the Government looks to community pharmacists to take on more work from GPs to help with the NHS crisis.
Last week, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay, told MPs the Government wants pharmacies to offer NHS services, such as prescribing the contraceptive pill, taking patients referred from A&E and providing advice for conditions such as skin infections, cystitis and allergies.
The extra responsibility is ‘welcome’, says Leyla Hannbeck, yet many can’t afford to be involved.
Community pharmacists — in particular small, independent businesses that are often family run — are already under pressure from soaring drug costs and drastic government underfunding, which means many are closing down, says pharmacist Mohammed Kolia, who is director of the Knights Pharmacy chain
In a letter last week to the Health Secretary, Leyla Hannbeck and other community pharmacist representatives described the sector as at ‘a fork in the road’.
‘The long-term attrition of 30 per cent real-term funding cuts over the past seven years,’ could, they said, rapidly lead to ‘many permanent closures,’ with ‘serious consequences for the millions of people who rely on dispensed prescriptions every year.’
As the Mail has highlighted, independent community pharmacists are being crushed by a financial crisis. About a third of them face closure by 2024, an analysis by Ernst & Young shows.
Their basic funding deal from the Government, last negotiated in 2015, froze funding at £1.27 per prescription item, but now it actually costs more like £2 in costs such as staff, heating and IT for a pharmacist to prescribe.
The Mail is campaigning for proper government funding to save independent community pharmacies, a lifeline for the old and vulnerable in particular.
The pharmacies’ position is becoming increasingly untenable — last week, the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) revealed that the shortfall in funding amounts to more than £67,000 per pharmacy every year in England.
On top of all this, independent High Street chemists are now beset by a wave of abuse from customers. In December alone, Mohammed Kolia had
