89% of pharmacies were shoplifted from last year. A national campaign starts this week
What happened
A national health campaign asking the public to treat pharmacy staff with respect began on Monday 5 October 2026 and runs until Sunday 25 October. The campaign is set by NHS England. Under the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework for 2026/27, community pharmacies in England are required to promote two national health campaigns each year. This is the first of them. Pharmacies are expected to support it with posters, leaflets, social media posts and information on their websites. The aim, in NHS England's words, is to promote respect for pharmacy staff so they can carry out their professional practice safely and in the best interests of patients. The second campaign of the year has already been scheduled. It will promote Pharmacy First and will run from Monday 1 February to Sunday 21 February 2027. The figures that sit behind this campaign are blunt. A survey by the National Pharmacy Association in early September found that 89% of pharmacies had experienced shoplifting in the previous year. Eleven per cent had seen an attempted theft of prescription medicines. Twenty-one per cent reported criminal damage. More than 90% felt the police response was not sufficient. An earlier NPA survey, reported with ITV News in August, found that 82% of pharmacies had witnessed racist abuse and 40% had experienced physical abuse. A Community Pharmacy England survey in March found 55% of pharmacy teams had faced verbal abuse in the previous six months, and that three quarters of those experiencing it were facing it weekly or more often.
Why this matters
Pharmacies are now one of the easiest parts of the NHS to walk into. No appointment, no referral, no waiting list. Under Pharmacy First, a pharmacist in England can assess and treat seven common conditions, including earache, sore throat and urinary tract infections, and supply prescription medicines for them where appropriate. That has been a real improvement for patients. It has also put the front line of the health service behind a shop counter on the high street, with no security desk and often one or two people on duty. When staff are abused, pharmacies respond the way any workplace would. Experienced people leave. Shifts become harder to fill. Opening hours shrink. Consultation rooms sit unused because there is nobody free to staff them. The harm does not stop with the person who was shouted at; it lands on every patient who turns up the following week and finds the door shut or the queue longer. There is a second point that deserves saying out loud, because pharmacy owners quoted in coverage of the campaign have made it themselves. Much of the anger is not really about the pharmacy. One owner, Kevin Simpson, said the frustrations people arrive with are caused by long waiting times, insufficient staff, and poor availability of medicines. Those are national problems. The pharmacy counter is simply where the public meets them.
What the evidence actually says
It is worth separating what is well measured from what is not. The survey figures are self-reported by pharmacies, and response rates for sector surveys are usually a fraction of all premises. That means the numbers are a reasonable picture of what pharmacy teams are experiencing, but they are not a precise national count. Nobody should claim the 89% figure is an exact measurement. What is striking is how consistent the direction is across separate pieces of work by different organisations at different points in 2026. The NPA in August and again in September, and Community Pharmacy England in March, all found abuse to be common rather than exceptional. When independent surveys with different questions point the same way, the broad finding is usually sound even if the exact percentages shift. One detail in the September figures is specific enough to be worth noting on its own. Eleven per cent of pharmacies reported an attempted theft of prescription medicines. That is not ordinary shoplifting. Prescription-only medicines diverted out of a pharmacy end up being taken by people without a diagnosis, a dose check or any record of what else they are taking. It is a patient safety issue as much as a crime figure. It is also fair to note what this campaign is and is not. It is a communications campaign. It does not change the law, add staff, or place a police officer in any pharmacy. Dr James Davies of Community Pharmacy England put the case for it simply: pharmacy teams work incredibly hard to provide vital care for their communities, and they deserve to feel safe and respected.
Qurexa perspective
We are a pharmacy delivery service, so we have a direct interest here and we will say so plainly. Our drivers and our pharmacy partners see both sides of this. Most interactions are warm. A small number are not, and those are the ones people carry home at the end of a shift. One thing we can usefully offer is this: a good share of counter frustration comes from journeys that did not need to happen. Somebody travels to the pharmacy, waits, and is told the item is not in yet. That is the moment tempers go. Delivery does not fix medicine supply problems, and we would not pretend otherwise. It does remove the wasted trip and the standing around, which is where a lot of the anger is generated. If you are housebound, work shifts, have small children, or simply find queueing difficult, having your prescription delivered takes one person out of a pressured queue. That helps you and it takes a little heat out of the counter. And if you are in the queue: the person in front of you is usually the reason the wait is long, and the person behind the counter is usually not.
Practical advice
If you use a pharmacy, a few things genuinely help: - Order repeat prescriptions about a week before you run out. Last-minute requests are the single biggest cause of a difficult conversation at the counter. - Ask about medicine availability before you travel. A phone call saves a wasted trip. Most pharmacies would far rather take the call. - Remember that pharmacists cannot hand over a prescription medicine that has not arrived, has not been prescribed, or is out of stock nationally. That is the law and the supply chain, not an unhelpful individual. - Use the consultation room. For Pharmacy First conditions such as earache, sore throat, sinusitis, impetigo, shingles, insect bites and urinary tract infections in women aged 16 to 64, a pharmacist can assess you and supply treatment where appropriate, without a GP appointment. - If you are frustrated about waiting times or medicine shortages, the pharmacy counter is not where that gets fixed. Your MP and NHS England are. If you work in a pharmacy: report incidents, including the ones that feel too small to bother with. Under-reporting is part of why the police response has been so weak. The campaign materials are available to pharmacies through NHS England, and promoting them is part of the contractual framework rather than an optional extra.
What to know
NHS England's national campaign on respect for pharmacy staff runs from 5 to 25 October 2026, and pharmacies in England are required to promote it under the 2026/27 contractual framework. A second campaign promoting Pharmacy First follows from 1 to 21 February 2027. The surveys behind the campaign found that 89% of pharmacies had experienced shoplifting in the past year, 11% an attempted theft of prescription medicines, and 21% criminal damage, with more than 90% saying the police response was insufficient. Separate surveys found widespread verbal, racist and physical abuse. These are self-reported survey figures rather than an exact national count, but several independent surveys through 2026 point the same way. Ordering repeat prescriptions early, ringing ahead about stock, and using Pharmacy First for minor conditions all reduce pressure at the counter. Sources: The Pharmacist, 'National campaign championing respect for pharmacy staff begins', 5 October 2026, https://www.thepharmacist.co.uk/news/national-campaign-championing-respect-for-pharmacy-staff-begins/ ; Community Pharmacy England, 'Latest News', https://cpe.org.uk/our-news/ ; NHS England, 'Pharmacy', https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/pharmacy/ This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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