Taking a tough line
We are in the process of barring a patient from using the pharmacy. Apparently, it’s not the first time this has been done.
As does every pharmacy, we have our known ‘trouble makers’ who come into the pharmacy generally looking to curse the staff and steal the stock. We have CCTV and the counter staff ring a bell when these patients come into the shop so that as many staff as possible cover the shop floor.
This generally seems to work, but we have had one patient who has been particularly abusive to the staff and so we have sent that patient a letter by recorded delivery stating the reasons why he/she is no longer welcome in the pharmacy and that the staff have clear instructions to call the police should he/she enter the premises again.
This seems a sensible and fair way of dealing with this situation so we will wait and see! How do you deal with this sort of problem? Click on the "Comments" link at the end of this post and let me know.
As does every pharmacy, we have our known ‘trouble makers’ who come into the pharmacy generally looking to curse the staff and steal the stock. We have CCTV and the counter staff ring a bell when these patients come into the shop so that as many staff as possible cover the shop floor.
This generally seems to work, but we have had one patient who has been particularly abusive to the staff and so we have sent that patient a letter by recorded delivery stating the reasons why he/she is no longer welcome in the pharmacy and that the staff have clear instructions to call the police should he/she enter the premises again.
This seems a sensible and fair way of dealing with this situation so we will wait and see! How do you deal with this sort of problem? Click on the "Comments" link at the end of this post and let me know.
posted by Dee Spencer at 2:53 pm
2 Comments:
Having had medicine thrown at my head by a patient who insisted that she had not had diazepam when she had on Sat (it should have been collected on fri).
I called the police immediately and told her and the rest of her family that she was banned.
Her GP said he hoped she was locked up. We had previously spent 1 hr on the phone trying to help her. Problem patients deserve zero tolerance once they overstep the line.
Unfortunately when I was a locum it was deemed OK by the supervisor for an addict to swear at me in front of a shop full of customers because a multiple could not afford to lose the revenue from a methadone patient.
All such behaviour is totally unacceptable.
(Edited)
Dee,
You handled it correct.
Fortunately we have not had to take action against abusive customers e.g. barring them because most of them have not come back (or apologeised).
A few years ago, my father (the superintendent/director of our chain of pharmacies) was racially abused by some teenage girl. I wanted to talk back to the girl and shout at her, but when there were other people in the shop, I felt it was best to let her storm out and show who had the upper hand (by not retaliating).
We've told our members of staff (and locums) that if someone is abusive, to report it to us (the directors) - the person's name, the person's GP, and whether they were regular patients or not. We will take action (if any) required from there.
Also, like what you've done, when patients get abusive, we'll get the pharmacist out, and as many of the members of staff out. Firm voice (but no shouting) seems to calm people down.
Sachin
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