“Over half of community pharmacy teams have felt unsafe over the last week due to recent riots across the country”, a snap survey by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed last week (August 9).

The membership body said that its poll of “an estimated 350 community pharmacies” found that “one in three pharmacies had considered closing due to safety concerns”.

Read more: Don’t let ‘vulnerable’ pharmacy staff work alone, GPhC urges amid riots

“And 13 per cent of pharmacy teams had faced racist comments over the last week”, it added.

“Riots [have] seen businesses vandalised, with some pharmacies choosing to reduce their opening hours or close altogether in light of advice from the police and local authorities,” the NPA said. 

“Turn people away who are racist”

NPA chief executive Paul Rees told C+D that "the last two weeks have been tough for so many people working in community pharmacy”.

He stressed that this was “especially” true for the “over 40% of pharmacists…from a South Asian heritage, black or from another ethnic minority”.

“We should not expect community pharmacy teams, under any circumstances, to accept being subjected to intimidation, harassment, racism or Islamaphobic abuse,” he added.

“We would encourage pharmacies to take a zero-tolerance approach towards patients who behave in this way - and would advise them to turn people away who are being abusive, racist or Islamophobic and contact the police,” he said.

Read more: ‘It was awful’: Southport pharmacies ‘closed to public’ due to riots

Meanwhile, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) yesterday last week called on pharmacy owners to “urgently consider” measures that could “reduce the risk” faced by pharmacy staff and keep them “safe at work” amid far-right rioting in England.

And last Monday, C+D spoke exclusively to pharmacy teams in Southport, where the first wave of far-right riots broke out following a knife attack at a dance school in which three young girls were killed.

CarePlus Chemist & Health Clinic told C+D that it had “closed to the public” because the team were not “comfortable with people coming in”, while another pharmacy also closed as a precaution.

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact Pharmacist Support by emailing [email protected] or calling 0808 168 2233/0808 168 5133 for free