Nine out of 10 pharmacies have reported an increase in shopkeeping and aggression towards employees in the last one year.
A survey of 500 pharmacies by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) also found that 87% had experienced at least one example of behavior towards workers, while 22% said that they had physically attacked employees.
Henry Greg, the head of the body, who represents more than 6,000 independent community pharmacies in the UK, called the findings “Apaling”.
This comes amidst an increase in shoplifting reports in the UK’s broad retail area.
A government spokesperson said he had “zero-assessment approach for violence or harassment directed on NHS staff and community pharmacists”.
He said that more than 500 city centers were being given additional patrolling with the objective of the theft of the shop and preventing related crimes.
But Mr. Greg said that the police should “do a lot to deal with crimes like shoplifting”. About three-fourths of pharmacies in the NPA survey said they felt that the police response to criminal incidents was insufficient.
Ashley Cohen, a pharmacist at Leeds, said he had seen “spatial growth in criminality”.
“I am not just talking about the small incidents of petty crime, shoplifting, I am watching the windlism,” he told the BBC Breakfast, seeing what he believed that “Sinister was an organized crime, where people are trying to reach our dispensary”.
He has made two attempts overnight in each of his two pharmacies, and three examples in which a brick was thrown through the front window.
Mr. Cohen said: “Every incident of crime in our pharmacy is not just a statistical, but it makes my employees feel insecure and it prevents our patients from reaching healthcare.”
The CEO of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), Leyla HannBeck – who represent small community pharmacy chain – said that dealing with shopkeepers was not just the issue of locking more expensive items like perfumes, because thieves were taking anything that they could hold.
“People feel that it is within their rights,” he told the BBC, saying that the shopkeepers felt due to lack of police reaction and those who were getting away with “slaps on the wrist”.
As a result – and increase in aggressive behavior – IPA members have to spend money to establish CCTVs or bring them to private security guards, he said.
The NPA says that even if represents pharmacies, the same measures have to be resorted to, as well as employs the body camera and panic button, and installs safety shutters.
Some have also considered displaying pictures of known thieves as a type – UK information Watchdog has warned against some because this data can break the security laws.
But these measures are paid by pharmacies themselves. Mr. Cohen said that the rapid response to the police would give them better security.
Last month, Figures from Office for National Statistics (ONS) In England and Wales, retailers have seen the highest level of shoplifting as the records began more than two decades ago.
British Retail Consortium (BRC) It has also been found that the shopkeepers are carrying out the rapid theft of Brezen and violent acts as they are not afraid of any result.
Victim Minister Alex Davis-Jones on Monday told the Today’s Today’s Today’s Today’s Today “Shoplifting was” out of hand “in the UK.
Asked about whether it was suitable for images of shopkeepers known in places like shop windows, he replied: “It should be known about what is going on in our local communities.”
Former NPA president Nick Key said that examples of aggression were not always associated with the shopkeeper, but often people were going to pharmacies after NHS went down.
“We [community pharmacies] Working with the weakest people, we are always there and accessible, “he said.
The NPA warns that the thief can harm himself or others by using a stolen prescription medicine.
