Contractors must report if staff catch virus: PDA

Concerns have been raised over the functioning of community pharmacies during the current pandemic as contractors haven’t reported any cases of Covid-19 among their members of staff.

Employers of pharmacists in GP practice, prisons and hospitals have all reported fatal and non-fatal instances of coronavirus among employees but community pharmacies have yet to report such incidents, said the Pharmacists' Defence Association.

Paul Day, PDA director, said: “We need to know the most likely place that individuals may have caught coronavirus. This is necessary for HR records and to assist any overall inquiry into the pandemic in order that the country learns and improves in preparation for any future pandemic.

“The PDA receives concerns from employed and locum pharmacists about the conduct of employers constantly. If it is that community pharmacy employees have likely caught coronavirus at work and yet their employer has not reported this, it is shocking and it raises further questions about the business behaviour of some community pharmacy companies.  We need to see what action, if any, the regulator will now take to get to the bottom of what the government has revealed.”

The PDA's concerns came after a parliamentary question revealed the level of reporting when Lord Kennedy of Southwark asked the government about the number of cases of Covid-19 considered to have been contracted in the workplace and how many have been reported to the Health and Safety Executive under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR).

Lord Kennedy said: “…We all know that GP practices have massively reduced interactions with patients, yet they have reported over 50 instances, whereas in dispensing chemists where activity has dramatically increased during the pandemic there has not been a single case reported.”

The PDA believes it highly improbable that there has not been a single instance of coronavirus amongst members of the community pharmacy teams due to exposure in the workplace.

“We call on employers to review where members of their team have had the virus and to properly report such instances without further delay, even if they have already missed the regulatory deadline for doing so.”

Pharmacy employers have already been told that it is a regulatory requirement that they must report if there is reasonable evidence that someone diagnosed with Covid-19 was likely exposed due to their profession.

The ministerial response revealed that while 1,526 instances have been reported from hospitals, 51 from GP practices and four from prisons, there has been zero reporting of Covid-19 by community pharmacy employers.