Aggresive Customers

Anger and aggression are often seen to go hand in hand but they are two different things. Anger is an emotional state, whereas aggressive behaviour can be verbal or physical and gives the signal that someone intends to cause harm or upset.

If the customer continues to be verbally abusive to you or if you feel there is the potential for a customer to become violent, your safety and that of your colleagues and customers must come first. It is important to remain calm whilst alerting other members of the pharmacy team and be ready to take emergency action to alert the police if the situation were to escalate. You are within your rights in this extreme situation to refuse to serve the customer and ask them to leave the premises, although your manager or pharmacist is likely to have intervened. Always follow guidance from your line manager. With regards to refusing to dispense a prescription to an aggressive customer or an individual threatening violence, this decision will need to be made by the pharmacist and should always be a last resort. The NHS operate a Zero Tolerance Policy to violence which applies to community pharmacy services also, however this must be balanced with the GPhC Standard of conduct, ethics and performance (England, Wales and Scotland) that pharmacists are required to follow. It could be argued that refusing to dispense a prescription could go against principle 1 which states that a pharmacist must 'make patients their first concern'. An acceptable solution could be for the customer to be redirected to another pharmacy in the area, if both the customer and alternative pharmacy are in agreement, as this would be ethical practice by ensuring patients receive their medicines when they need them. In Northern Ireland it is a little clearer under the PSNI standards of conduct, ethics and performance as point 1.1.5 states that 'If, for any reason, you are unable to provide a professional service, you have a professional responsibility to take reasonable steps to refer the patient or service user to an appropriate alternative provider for the service they require'.

GPhC Standards for pharmacy professionals . May 2017
PSNI. The Code Professional standards of conduct, ethics and performance forpharmacists in Northern Ireland. Effective from 1st March 2016.