The longstanding PDA violence in pharmacy campaign started to receive increasing support from the politicians responsible for the England and Wales police forces and also from community safety groups before the NPCC today confirmed that they will be backing the campaign. The NPCC brings police forces in the UK together to help policing coordinate operations, reform, improve and provide value for money
The Company Chemists Association (CCA), who represent Asda, Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, Morrisons, Rowlands, Superdrug, Tesco, and Well, also published a statement on Friday 17 April to confirm that all eight of their members now support zero tolerance of violence (read more).
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) define violence as “Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work” and the PDA policy calls for five key measures to be in place:
- A zero-tolerance policy for violence towards staff working in a pharmacy, including verbal, sectarian or racist abuse directed towards pharmacists and pharmacy staff.
- A requirement for every pharmacy owner to undertake a risk assessment at individual premises level and publish a clearly-defined statement on the risk of violence.
- Measures appropriate to the situation, as identified by a risk assessment, are implemented to reduce the risks of violence.
- Funding for security measures from the government to assist pharmacy contractors with their implementation.
- Regulatory standards which place more robust requirements on pharmacy owners, superintendents, chief pharmacists and managers to ensure the safety of staff.
DOWNLOAD THE revised ZERO TOLERANCE OF ABUSE POSTER HERE
Related links
- Police and Crime Commissioners support PDA’s campaign to stop violence in pharmacies
- CCA members sign up to zero tolerance of abuse of pharmacy staff