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Four in five staff in independent pharmacies in England have suffered racist abuse, a survey by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and ITV News has found.

The survey of 370 pharmacies last month revealed 35 per cent had been abused on “most days” and 40 per cent said they experienced physical abuse.

The NPA said the findings should prompt the Government to give pharmacy staff greater protection and “the same level of support offered to other parts of the health system by the NHS”. The NPA also urged Labour to give pharmacies the same funding that GPs get from the NHS “to make security changes to their premises”.

“No such support is offered to community pharmacies, despite 90 per cent of an average pharmacy’s funding coming from the NHS,” the NPA said, referring to General Pharmaceutical Council data showing over 60 per cent of pharmacists come from non-white British backgrounds.

The NPA warned pharmacy staff will leave the profession unless the NHS and police do more “to tackle an endemic level of abuse and threats aimed at pharmacy teams”.

“(There has been) a disturbing change in attitudes from a minority of patients which has resulted in abuse being directed towards pharmacy staff that must be tackled,” the NPA added.

Describing the survey’s findings as “truly disturbing,” its chair Olivier Picard warned there was “a rising tide of abuse and even violent behaviour towards hard working pharmacy staff who are simply trying their best to support their patients”.

“I am particularly disgusted to hear of increasing levels of racist abuse being directed towards pharmacy teams, which we must all work to stamp out,” he said.

“Although this represents a very small minority of the 1.6 million people who visit a pharmacy every day in England, increasing levels abuse risks staff leaving pharmacy all together, something we can ill-afford.

“The NHS and Department of Health have always rightly said that we should have a zero-tolerance approach towards abuse of NHS staff.”

Get in touch and tell us your experiences. Email neil.trainis@1530.com