A report from the National Order of Pharmacists indicates that over the past three years, acts of aggression against pharmacists have increased. In 2022, at least one pharmacist was attacked every day in France.
It is a “worrying phenomenon” which greatly worries the National Order of Pharmacists. In French pharmacies, assaults have risen sharply over the past three years: they have returned “to a level equivalent to that before the health crisis, after a sharp increase due to an exceptional epidemic context”, described Carine Wolf-Thal, President of the National Order of Pharmacists, with France News.
Read also :
Blows, threats, insults … Two thirds of nurses have already been victims of aggression, according to their Order
A report to be published on Monday June 5 explains that in 2022, 366 declared attacks against pharmacists were recorded. This represents “on average one pharmacist attacked every day in France”, punctuates the document. In this annual report on the safety of pharmacists, the Order reports several hundred verbal or physical attacks as well as thefts.
“Refusals of dispensation”
Verbal and physical violence is “mainly linked to a refusal of dispensation”, adds the report, which specifies that the majority of the attacks suffered are not serious (95.8%). “When a pharmacist detects a false prescription, he will systematically refuse to dispense the product”, explains for her part Carine Wolf-Thal. The president of the National Order of Pharmacists believes that the French would in this case be angry with “the system”. Faced with this anger, she says that pharmacists are on the front line.
Read also :
INTERVIEW. Murder of a nurse in Reims, elected officials assaulted … “We suffer the exaggeration of the dramas without reacting” analyzes Jean Viard
In detail, this annual report reports 355 declarations of attacks in pharmacies, 6 in medical biology laboratories and 5 in pharmacies for internal use (PUI). “If the peak of 600 attacks declared in the context of the health crisis is tending to subside, the data nevertheless reflect an increase of 17% compared to 2019”, before the pandemic, notes the Order in a press release. “The Covid period was particularly complicated for pharmacists,” insists Carine Wolf-Thal.
For “exemplary sentences”
In pharmacies, “verbal and physical violence represent 70% of declarations, of which nearly 8% are still linked to the health crisis (wearing a mask, vaccination, antigenic tests)”, specifies the Order. “This phenomenon of insecurity affects the whole of the national territory as evidenced by the 30% of attacks in pharmacies located in municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants”, continues the document. The Order “strongly urges pharmacists who are victims of any type of attack to file a complaint”, noting that “again this year, 44% of declaring pharmacists do not file a complaint, in particular for lack of time, fear of reprisals or considering that it is not necessary”.
Read also :
Murder at the Reims University Hospital: “gentle”, “appreciated by all”, “always smiling”… who was Carène Mezino, the stabbed nurse?
For her part, Carine Wolf-Thal is campaigning for the establishment of “exemplary, more dissuasive penalties”. The president also hopes that the police will gradually be led to go to pharmacies to register complaints directly and that remote monitoring systems be put in place in pharmacies across the country.