The latest Community Pharmacy England (CPE) research reveals an alarming rise in racist, hostile, verbal and physical abuse towards pharmacy teams, and they never get the same level of support as other wings of the NHS, when they come under attack.
For some community pharmacy teams, these attacks have become a daily occurrence, making their working life increasingly difficult, and at times dangerous.
Some are facing physical assaults, racist and discriminatory behaviour, violence linked to shoplifting, and serious threats to their safety.
Counter staff, trainees, women, and younger team members have to bear the brunt, resulting in fear, burnout, and some even leave the profession.
These cases often go underreported due to fear or reluctance to escalate situations, meaning the true scale of the problem is likely greater, the CPE said.
The survey gathered responses from 289 pharmacy owners and staff from over 3,000 pharmacies.
One in five (21 percent) pharmacies face verbal abuse on a daily basis, while three out of four (75 percent) experience it on a weekly basis.
The pharmacy teams face intimidation, racist, religious, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic abuse, including personal insults, slurs, belittling comments, and microaggressions based on appearance, accent, or identity are other disturbing experiences underwent by the pharmacy teams.
While physical attacks are less frequent (6 percent), they are very violent - ranging from strangulation, pushing, punching, objects being thrown to attacks after closing time.
Prescription delays, medicine shortages, NHS interface failures, and service eligibility rules outside pharmacy control, often leads to physical attacks.
However, community pharmacies did not receive proper response or support from the authorities when such incidents were reported.
“Community pharmacies provide vital healthcare services, and their staff deserve to work in an environment free from aggression or intimidation,” opined Mark Donaghy, professional development manager at Kamsons Pharmacy (a family-owned group of over 80 pharmacies based across England).
Dervis Gurol, owner and superintendent pharmacist of Healthy-U Pharmacy in Saltdean, said, “We absorb the frustration caused by NHS delays, medication shortages, and system failures - but it’s our staff who face threats, attacks, harassment, and disrespect. This takes a real toll on my team, it deeply affects morale, retention, and their safety.”
“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,” said CPE’s chief executive, Janet Morrison.
Danielle Hunt, chief executive of Pharmacist Support said, “It is essential that pharmacy teams feel confident to speak up about abuse and are empowered to adopt a zero-tolerance approach when their safety or wellbeing is threatened.”
Unacceptable: NPA
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has also come in support of the community pharmacies.
NPA’s chief executive Henry Gregg commented, "Abuse, threats and assaults of pharmacy staff is absolutely unacceptable but unfortunately, we have seen an alarming rise in this in recent months and years. In particular, we have heard of a rise in racist abuse directed towards pharmacy teams.”
"When pharmacies report these issues to both the police and wider NHS, all too often the response is inadequate.”
He called upon the NHS to offer pharmacies similar support given to other colleagues in primary care, to protect their staff and premises.
