Aggression in pharmacies still increasing

Pharmacists and pharmacist assistants are increasingly facing aggressive customers. The main reason behind it is the growing medicines shortages, the pharmacists’ association KNMP told De Telegraaf. Medicines disappearing from the basic health insurance also leads to incidents.

Last year, research by the KNMP and NOS showed that 40 percent of pharmacists face aggression from customers every week, and 20 percent even daily. According to the KNMP, that has increased further in the past six months.

Aggression usually arises when customers hear that their medicines are not in stock. Last year, the Netherlands faced shortages of 1,514 medicines. That number is heading to be significantly higher this year, with 1,179 medicine shortages reported in just the first half of 2023. “If nothing changes, we will reach a new record at the end of this year,” KNMP chairman Aris Prins told the newspaper. “You could think of doubling what we have already seen in the first part of the year. That will probably get us even more angry patients in the pharmacy.”

Another cause of aggression is health insurers suddenly stopping reimbursing medicines. “In that case, the pharmacist’s assistant is the one to bring this bad news from the health insurer. And then it is the pharmacy that absorbs people’s frustration,” Prins said. According to him, patients know it isn’t the pharmacist’s fault. “But they have nowhere else to go. They feel ignored, not taken seriously, and that is expressed at our desk. Because you can always talk with us.

The situation has become dire enough that the Labor Inspectorate will start visiting pharmacies in September to check whether employers are protecting their workers against patients’ aggression, according to the Telegraaf. The Inspectorate will check for things like whether pharmacies have an action plan, a risk inventory, and an incident register.