Man ‘smashed up pharmacy’ after being refused antibiotics
A pharmacy is fighting for security guard funding after a man caused £5,000 worth of damage and hit a member of the public when he was denied antibiotics without a prescription.
More Juma of Kimberley Road in Leicester has been jailed for 15 months after he was denied antibiotics and “became aggressive”, Cambridgeshire Constabulary revealed yesterday (February 22).
Mr Juma, 33, went to City Pharmacy in Peterborough on the morning of November 21 and “demanded antibiotics for a tooth problem”, the force said.
Pharmacy staff then attempted to “calm him down” by giving him a dental gel, Cambridgeshire Constabulary said.
But when he “was unable to open it, [he] began to smash up items including computer monitors, card machines and scanners”, ultimately causing “about £5,000 in damage”, police added.
“The patient came in [and] was aggressive asking for antibiotics without a prescription”, City Pharmacy pharmacist Kassim Kurji told C+D today.
The man “came towards the counter”, “lashed out at [the] COVID screen and came around a counter and threw everything on the floor”, Mr Kurji said.
The patient then “threw some devices across the pharmacy and…at the staff” before going into the dispensary, he added.
“[He] grabbed one of our huge monitors, our 27-inch ones…and went to throw it on the staff but then threw it on the floor”, Mr Kurji said.
Sprayed with a fire extinguisher
Police said that after he “smashed up the pharmacy”, the man “threatened members of the public”.
He “picked up a glass bottle and began threatening customers, striking a man twice in the back who had tried to stop him by spraying a fire extinguisher”, the force added.
“He was eventually restrained by passers-by and arrested by officers”, police said, adding that while being held at Thorpe Wood Police Station, he “requested to see a custody nurse for his tooth pain, but spat in both her eyes when she opened his cell hatch”.
This week (February 20), Mr Juma was sentenced to 15-months’ imprisonment after being “found guilty…of assaulting an emergency worker, criminal damage and affray”, the force said.
“[He] behaved disgracefully towards people who were just trying to help him and I am glad he has faced justice”, PC Sam Malton added.
“We desperately need funding for protection”
Mr Kurji told C+D that “violence is increasing in the pharmacy”.
“I’ve noticed a trend where patients are more aggressive than they have been in the past”, he said.
He added that City Pharmacy has joined with the local GP surgery in which it is located, which has faced “some major issues as well”, to try to secure funding from the local integrated care board (ICB) “for a security guard”.
“I know it's unusual”, he said, “but if [the ICB] has provided these sort of security measures to other health professionals in the hospital and then I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t have some funding”.
“We desperately need funding for some sort of form of protection”, he stressed.
It comes after Merseyside Police last week appealed to the public after “a large quantity” of prescription medication was stolen from a local pharmacy.
