Attacks in pharmacies are up 17% compared to 2019 and 70% of these “attacks are linked to drug shortages”, explains Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the Union of community pharmacists.
“To improve the situation, we need easier access to care and better patient care.“, analysis Sunday June 4 on franceinfo Pierre-Olivier Variot, pharmacist in Plombières-lès-Dijon (Côte-d’Or) and president of the Union of Unions of Community Pharmacists (USPO). He reacted to the study of the Order of Pharmacists that franceinfo was able to consult and which says that attacks in pharmacies are up 17% compared to 2019 (i.e. 366 verbal, physical attacks or thefts in 2022). complaints are filed. Pierre-Olivier Variot believes that the current context generates “twitches“.
>>>> Health: attacks on pharmacists are up 17% compared to 2019, according to a study by the Order
franceinfo: Are you surprised by the number of attacks on pharmacists?
Pierre-Olivier Variot, President of the Union of Community Pharmacists: Not at all. Regarding the low rate of complaints, in a phase where they were overwhelmed, I think that the pharmacists did not want to add additional administrative hassle. However, pharmacists are advised to do so.
70% of assaults are linked to a refusal of dispensation [analyser une prescription de médicaments, les délivrer et aider à leur correcte administration]or the impossibility of delivering the requested drugs, what is this due to?
It is related to several things. It’s related to drug shortages. There are angers that we can understand, like that of this mother who had arrived very tired and her worry created her aggressiveness because on her child’s prescription, there were four medicines, but the pharmacy didn’t had none. We had to take the time to call the doctor and see with him. She apologized, but we still take this aggressiveness. There are also cases where we do not have access to doctors because they are overwhelmed and the appointments are too far apart. It created a lot of tension. Among the solutions, the new law which says that we can renew the treatments for three months if they are chronic and the patient is stabilized. It goes in the direction of better support for patients, but it does not solve everything.
Does the fact that the pharmacist is at the end of the patient care chain make him more vulnerable?
Yes. There is also the fact that we are always open and that we can come to the pharmacy without an appointment. Patients do not hesitate to push the door and that’s very good. This ease of access and the fact of being at the end of the chain for the patient means that we also have tensions. We must also mention duty pharmacies. In some towns, the biggest ones, before going to a pharmacy on duty, after a certain time, you have to go through the police station, which warns the pharmacist of the arrival of a patient. It therefore performs real filtering which reinforces security. We have more and more cities where the police stations are disengaging from this filtering due to a lack of human resources, for example. In conclusion, to improve the situation, we need easier access to care and better patient care.