NEWS
norThErn IrElAnD’S CoMMUnITy PhArMACISTS hAVE BEEn lEfT rEElIng By ThE EVEnTS of 6 APrIl. hErE, PAUl MCDonAgh SPEAKS To PIf ABoUT ThE DAngErS fACIng PhArMACISTS AnD ThEIr STAff ToDAy…
Community pharmacy on a knife edge I
n november last year, Pif ran a feature entitled ‘Pharmacists: on the front line’. In it, we looked at
the increasing violence that’s occurring today in community pharmacy, with regular reports of pharmacists, technicians and other staff being attacked.
We could little have imagined that less than six months later, not one, but two northern Ireland community pharmacists would be facing a nightmare scenario.
Just after 9.30am on Thursday 6 April, a man entered James McDonagh Pharmacy on Belfast’s falls road brandishing a knife and demanded Tramadol from pharmacy owner, Paul McDonagh and locum, Peter Wright. When the men refused, the man stabbed both of them – one in the arm and groin, and the other in the chest.
While other pharmacists have, over the years, been physically attacked – and even stabbed – in their pharmacies – this attack has left all those involved in community pharmacy reeling.
Put simply, the profession has been shaken to its core.
As with so many other community pharmacists, both Paul and Peter were back behind the pharmacy counter within a few days but, talking to Paul now, just a few weeks after the attack, it’s clear that it will be some time before the memory of 6 April dissipates.
‘To be honest,’ he tells me, ‘we don’t get a lot of trouble in the pharmacy. I think it’s partly because it’s a very close-knit community and everybody knows everybody else. We’re well known to our patients and we’ve always enjoyed a good relationship with them. nevertheless, as with most community pharmacies today, we are security conscious and have a buzzer system on the door, which allows us to monitor who is
4 - PhArMACy In foCUS Photo: Pacemaker
coming into the shop. I’m not sure whether it was just a temporary lapse of concentration or what, but before we knew it there was a guy in the shop with a knife demanding Tramadol.’
over the next few horrifying minutes, both Paul and Peter received stab wounds, which were – thankfully - only superficial. Since the attack, Paul admits that the pharmacy has stepped up its security and now finds himself watching people coming in with increased vigilance.
‘The problem that community pharmacy has is that there’s little we can do to actually prevent such attacks happening,’ he says. ‘People are so desperate for drugs now that they will go to any lengths to obtain them and, as far as I can see, the situation is only going to get worse.
‘There’s been such an increase in the prescribed drugs market that more and more people are keen to get into selling them. The pharmacy provides a very lucrative source simply by the nature of what we do. one break-in or burglary can provide someone with a black bag full of drugs for either consumption or for selling. But what can we do to stop this? We can’t stop stocking drugs.
‘one of the first people to come into the pharmacy after the attack and speak to me was the former health
Minister, Bairbre de Brún. She had been in post when we were all provided with time-release safes and she actually said to me ‘I thought all of this had stopped!
‘The time-release safes were initially a great idea but, as with most pharmacies, ours is now full of drugs that are compulsory for the safe, so where do you start to lock up drugs like Tramadol? I’d dearly love to hear any suggestions that other pharmacists have in terms of upping security.
‘Panic buttons can be an idea. Some people have the silent type but I remember some years ago a pharmacist telling me that he had installed a really loud one that, when it went off, everybody had to leave the pharmacy immediately. Is that a better option than the silent type?
‘Things happened so quickly that morning that I don’t know that we would even have had time to push a button. The element of surprise at what was happening, which morphed very quickly into shock – meant that the whole thing happened so quickly.
‘Also, areas like ours – in addition to being close knit – have always ‘self policed’ to an extent. now, however, the gloves seem to be off and the situation is freewheeling out of control – and it’s only going to get worse!
‘As the demand for drugs – prescribed and other – increases, the need for a supply will increase incrementally. I think we’ll eventually end up like pharmacies in Dublin, where they have security men on the premises. nobody wants to go down this road here, but what other choice will there be?
‘After 20 years of relative calm in the pharmacy, two of us are stabbed in one morning. And it could have been worse – we had a third member of staff on the premises too; a female.
‘That’s my other concern – the majority of pharmacy staff throughout northern Ireland are females. If two men couldn’t stop this guy, what would have happened if we had been women? It doesn’t bear thinking about.’
The stab wounds on Paul McDonagh’s arms and groin may have started to disappear, but the scars left on the province’s community pharmacy profession are here to stay.
‘Communicating the zero tolerance policy will help reassure the community pharmacy workforce that their concerns are being listened to.’ UCA President, Cliff McElhinney.
(Cliff McElhinney was part of a pharmacy delegation which recently met with Mark Timoney and Joe Brogan to discuss the recent spate of attacks. Read his account of the meeting on page 31).
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