West Yorkshire Police last week (August 10) revealed that four men have been arrested after a 27-year-old man “was assaulted by a number of people armed with machetes” in Wakefield.
The attack came after two cars collided “near to” a pharmacy on August 8, police said, adding that the victim was in hospital with “serious injuries” but they were “not believed to be life-threatening”.
According to the police, enquiries into the incident “remain ongoing” and the four men – aged between 26 and 34 – were still in police custody as of Sunday.
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A 48-year-old woman was also arrested and released on bail, the force added.
Wakefield District Criminal Investigation Department’s detective inspector Fiona Allan said that the police “understand the concern that an incident of this nature will cause in the local community”.
The force is “continuing to dedicate a significant resource to investigate this incident”, she said, thanking “those in the community who have come forward with information so far”.
“Physical assaults”
The attack comes as the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) today (August 12) released new survey findings revealing that 87% of pharmacies have “seen an increase in aggressive and intimidating behaviour toward pharmacy teams in the last year”.
Of the “around 500 pharmacies” surveyed, 22% said they had “even seen physical assaults on staff” in the same period and 88% reported “a surge in incidents of shoplifting”.
The NPA “condemned the abuse of hard-working pharmacy staff and urged the police to do more to deter shoplifters”.
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It noted that “of those that reported these criminal incidents to the police, 73% believed they received an insufficient response”.
“Pharmacies have warned that the potential theft of medicines, including controlled drugs, could have serious consequences for someone’s health and may be being stolen for criminal gain”, the trade association said.
“Theft from pharmacies is potentially a more serious criminal offence than common shoplifting,” it added.
“Hostile behaviour”
But the NPA also said that some pharmacies have reported “hostile behaviour” from “a minority of patients” who are frustrated by national shortages of certain medicines.
“Pharmacy teams can often be more vulnerable to threatening or abusive behaviour than other parts of the NHS,” it argued.
And it stressed that pharmacies are “not required to supply NHS medicines to people committing or threatening to commit a criminal offence”.
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The NPA called on the NHS to “provide a similar level of support that is offered to other parts of primary care, such as GP practices, to help protect pharmacies and their teams”.
Chief executive Henry Gregg condemned the survey’s “appalling findings”, adding that it is “particularly concerning to hear of reports of physical assaults as well as threats towards pharmacy staff, which [are] totally unacceptable”.
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“Due to their accessible nature, pharmacy teams can often be more exposed to abuse and threats than their primary care colleagues,” he said, stressing that “the police should do much more”.
“We need to do more to tackle shoplifting as well as offering pharmacies similar support to other NHS colleagues in primary care to protect their staff and their premises,” Gregg added.
In June, a man who confessed to murder in a pharmacy was sentenced to decades in prison for a “truly horrific attack on a vulnerable woman”.
