70% of assaults are linked to an impossibility to deliver the requested medication.
Attacks on pharmacists are on the rise. “In 2022, 366 assaults (verbal, physical or theft) were declared on the Order’s form, including 14 overseas”, indicates the National Council of the Order of Pharmacists in a report which will be published on Monday and which franceinfo was able to consult on Sunday June 4. Compared to 2019, the number of assaults suffered by pharmacists increased by 17%. “There is clearly an increase compared to 2019”indicates on franceinfo Carine Wolf-Thal, the president of the Order.
With 366 aggression, “this number returns to a level equivalent to that of before the health crisis, after a sharp increase due to an exceptional epidemic context”, according to the balance sheet. “The Covid period has been particularly complicated for pharmacistsinsisted Carine Wolf-Thal, we will remember the difficulties in having masks, in carrying out tests, then the difficulties with vaccines and anti-vax reactions”.
Verbal and physical violence against pharmacists is the majority and has been proportionally on the rise for two years, the report indicates.
“These are insults, blows, sometimes even with weapons, in 5% of cases.”
Carine Wolf-Thal, President of the Order of Pharmacists.at franceinfo
“The tensions of access to care or even to a doctor, this creates tensions in the population who do not always have or no longer have access to their medicines as before”, explains Carine Wolf-Thal. 70% of attacks are linked to a refusal to dispense, ie an impossibility to deliver the requested drugs.
Three regions concentrate more than a third of attacks
The regions where the number of declarations of attacks suffered was the highest are Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, Île-de-France and Pays de la Loire. They account for nearly 35% of declared attacks. A majority of incidents occur, notes the report, in towns with less than 30,000 inhabitants and in particular in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants.
Finally, the Order recalls the importance of declaring attacks against professionals. Only 35% of pharmacists filed complaints following their attack, according to the report.