Pharmacists say they are regularly being subjected to angry, aggressive behaviour from customers, amid a rise in violent attacks.

So awful is the abuse being directed at healthcare professionals working in our high streets that one pharmacist tells senior reporter Lauren Abbott that he’s lost good, caring staff who just can’t take it anymore.

Sixteen years ago when Amish Patel first qualified as a pharmacist, he recalls a relationship with patients that looks and feels very different to the one he often experiences today.

The Longfield business owner fondly remembers a respect built-up between chemists and customers where ‘everyone would be a friend in the pharmacy’ as staff worked hard to dispense essential medicine and offer advice.

But in the years since, and particularly post-pandemic, the balance has tilted, he explains, to more of a ‘transactional service’ where many of the people now coming through the doors of his Longfield business aren’t so caring towards him or his staff.

Instead, he says, he and other healthcare professionals like him are now being regularly subjected to angry, aggressive abuse from customers, which has even resulted in him losing ‘great’ workers.

Violent attacks in Kent’s chemists

Alongside the many, many instances of verbal attacks and arguments that will go unreported, in 2022 there were 13 incidents of violent crime on pharmacy premises recorded by Kent Police - with this rising to 21 cases last year.

So far between January and October this year, 15 violent attacks have already been reported.

Mr Patel explained: “I can’t say I’m surprised - we’ve seen in increase in the abuse that pharmacies and pharmacy teams receive.

“I’m not surprised, but also very disappointed obviously.

“I understand from a patient’s perspective they’re scared, they’re nervous, and if there’s a medicine they can’t get hold of and they’ve been told they’ve got to take it every day I get it, the frustration of ‘what do I do’ but that can’t be directed at the pharmacy and the team who are doing everything they can to support that patient.

“We are in this industry because we care for our patients.”

Mr Patel, who runs Hodson’s Pharmacy in Station Road, says issues with medicine shortages have become a common trigger for the abuse being directed at healthcare staff in pharmacies who, he says, are always doing their best.

He explained: “What people don’t seem to realise is that we only get paid if we get that medication in for you, so it’s in our best interests to get the medication, to supply them to our patients, because that’s how we get remunerated.

“So when people are then directing that anger to us, it is saddening and frustrating for us as well.”

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society estimates that half of all pharmacists experienced some form of physical or verbal abuse in 2022 - according to a wellbeing survey it published last year.

The General Pharmaceutical Council too has raised concerns about the ‘worrying’ treatment of workers in the last couple of years.

Amish said the rapid rise in the number of aggressive customers they are encountering has led to some staff handing in their notice - while also making it more difficult for him to offer a secure working environment.

He explained: “I’ve lost staff members because of it and it’s not right, it’s simply not right There are other ways around it. There are ways of dealing with it, but violence and abuse is just not the way.

“The aggression from customers has driven my staff out of wanting to work in the pharmacy. Great members of staff, really caring members of staff. People that will carry stuff to the car, help ladies and gentleman walk across the road when there’s busy times of the day.

“They’ve just left because they can’t tolerate this any more - the negative attitudes from customers when they’re working so hard to try and get them what they need. It’s really sad.

“It is really really disheartening. It makes me not want to be a pharmacist or a healthcare professional anymore. There’s a number of times I’ve gone home and thought ‘I want to change my career’ because although I’m trying to help, it’s not reciprocated back in the other direction.

“Everyone should feel safe in their workplace. As an owner it’s really hard for me in particular to make sure I’m providing that environment.”

So what could possibly be the answer?

Amish said he would like to see patients listen to national conversations and those taking place in the media about the problems and issues pharmacists are facing so that customers are more understanding and can work with pharmacies rather than resorting to anger and aggression.

Many pharmacists, he explains, are underfunded and subsequently understaffed while difficulties with drug shortages and steady supplies are also causing problems in a wider picture.

They are also all factors, he suggests, that open the door for a greater role for government who ‘could look to do more’ to step-in, improve dialogue across the sector and in turn, help keep professionals safe.

Rising attacks on all retail staff

The rise in attacks on pharmacists are part of an across-the-board rise in abuse shoppers now direct at all retail staff.

Around 1,300 incidents are being recorded nationwide every day, estimates the British Retail Consortium, despite ‘huge sums’ being invested in crime prevention.

Helen Dickinson BRC chief executive added: “While the violence can be over in a moment, the victims carry these experiences with them for a lifetime.

“This is a crisis that demands action now.”

Kent Police said it takes all reported offences against retail staff seriously.

Superintendent Pete Steenhuis added: “There is no excuse for people who think it is acceptable to assault pharmacists or other key workers supporting the community, and we take all reported offences against retail staff seriously.

“Nobody should fear being assaulted in the workplace and we encourage anyone who is targeted to call 999 in an emergency or if a crime is in progress. Non-urgent incidents should be reported online at kent.police.uk/report.

“People who wrongly think it is OK to commit violent acts against retail staff or anyone else can be assured they will be arrested and brought to justice.”

In April 2020 at Sheppey Community Hospital, pharmacist Krunal Vyas was punched by a man whose wife’s prescription wasn’t ready.

In May 2020 a police officer was left needing hospital treatment after being assaulted at a high street pharmacy.

The city centre constable sustained an injury while attending a disturbance at the shop in St George’s Street, Canterbury, after which a 51-year-old man was charged in connection with the assault.

While last year an armed robber who held terrified pharmacy staff in Seasalter at gunpoint was jailed for 12 years.

Community Pharmacy Kent is the body that represents all community pharmacy contractors in the county.

Its chief executive Mark Anyaegbuna says pharmacies are the front line in community healthcare and have taken on more and more work and responsibility in recent years.

This includes the Pharmacy First scheme that can treat minor ailments, blood pressure checks, contraception advice, needle exchange and help with substance misuse all alongside the dispensing and delivery of medicines.

"It's a challenging position that we find ourselves in" he explained. Everything from medicine shortages to a shortage of GP appointments, Mark says, can play a role when desperate patients get frustrated with the system and take it out on those the other side of the counter.

"We are bearing the brunt of the whole system that is falling apart" he added.

"We are absorbing a huge workload - they welcome the workload - they just need to be properly funded.

"I just wish the government could sit around the table and really look at the funding model for the sector because it's really crippling."

But it’s not just physical and verbal attacks that pharmacists are enduring, says the National Pharmacy Association.

Thousands of incidents of shoplifting, say the NPA, are now being reported each year placing an additional heavy cost on chemists, which are mostly small family-run businesses.

NPA Chair, Nick Kaye, said: “Pharmacies pride themselves on offering easily accessible healthcare services at the heart of communities, and this makes us vulnerable to crimes like shoplifting. Our doors are open to anyone who needs our help, no appointment necessary.

“Crime against pharmacies adds to the already intense pressures on this vital health service, which has seen many closures in the last decade.

“There should be zero tolerance of crime within the NHS and wider health services. Above all, hardworking clinicians and other pharmacy staff deserve to be able to do their vital work without fear.”