No-one was ready for Coronavirus. It’s exposed many fault lines in the way pharmacy is viewed by the NHS and patients. It’s also revealed the extraordinary dedication shown by pharmacists on the frontline.
Your safety is top of our agenda. You told us that you didn’t feel safe at work and we’ve done our best to help. We know there’s still a long way to go in tackling the epidemic and still issues to solve.
Getting access to tests for you and members of your household is vital. We lobbied government and other key stakeholders to make sure pharmacists were included as part of the frontline team who got access to tests.
We hear there are still some problems as tests are snapped up so quickly. If you’re having difficulties getting tested, let us know.
No one should go to work feeling they might be verbally abused or worse. After you told us some members of the public were behaving aggressively inside and outside the pharmacy we alerted police forces across the country. They have now provided guidance to support pharmacies during the pandemic and increased their neighbourhood surveillance and presence to help you feel more secure. If you’re still experiencing aggression, we recommend you report it to your local police force who can then help you.
We know there’s still a lot more to do. Our snapshot survey revealed that many of you still have difficulties getting access to continuous supplies of PPE to protect you and your team. We are trying to help fix this.
We are continuing to speak to governments across the country, the NHS, the media and other pharmacy organisations to champion pharmacy and resolve the issues which matter to you.
Please tell us about any safety issues you would like us to raise [email protected]
We’ve been actively tackling the problems you’ve been experiencing during Covid19 across all areas of pharmacy practice. Find out what else we’ve been lobbying for.