One in three pharmacies polled by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said they considered closing as riots spread across the UK over the last week.

And over half of pharmacy teams said that they felt unsafe because of the violent unrest, the NPA said.

More than one in ten (13%) of pharmacy teams reported that they had faced racist comments over the last week, according to the 'snap poll' carried out by the NPA over WhatsApp over the last three days.

The NPA estimated that the poll represented around 350 community pharmacies.

According to the NPA, over 40% of pharmacists are from a South Asian heritage, black or from another ethnic minority and it is thought that the majority of independent community pharmacy owners are of South Asian heritage.

Paul Rees, NPA chief executive, commented on the NPA's polling today: 'The last two weeks have been tough for so many people working in community pharmacy – especially for those who are of South Asian heritage, black or from other ethnic minorities.

'We should not expect community pharmacy teams, under any circumstances, to accept being subjected to intimidation, harassment, racism or Islamophobic abuse.'

And in line with comments made earlier this week by health secretary Wes Streeting, Mr Rees encouraged pharmacies to 'take a zero tolerance approach' and 'turn people away who are being abusive, racist or Islamophobic and contact the police'.

'Pharmacies are the heart of their communities and as the front door of the NHS have been particularly vulnerable to a rise in violence and intimidation in the last few weeks.

'We are immensely proud of the diversity of pharmacy contractors and their teams and are doing all we can to support them at this time.'

'Pharmacy is an isolating profession in many ways'

In an exclusive interview with The Pharmacist this week, Mr Rees said that the current unrest was exacerbating abuse that many pharmacy teams already experience.

‘We've had reports from quite a few members that the level of abuse [towards pharmacy teams] has been rising anyway, where people are frustrated about how long it takes to dispense medicine, or where there are medicine shortages.

‘But I think certainly members of South Asian heritage, members of colour, where there's been an underlying level of abuse anyway, there's been an increase in that since the start of last week. There's a very high percentage of our members who've come to us to say they feel unsafe,’ he told The Pharmacist.

‘One of the challenges is that pharmacy is an isolating profession in many ways. If you are a contractor and you have one pharmacy, and you have a small team, it is quite an isolating profession to work in.

‘That's one of the reasons that our day of action on the 20th of June, I think, was so powerful, because people felt that they were coming together and part of something bigger for the first time. We want to recreate that sense on the 19th of September [when the NPA’s next day of action is planned].’

‘And we want to celebrate the fact that these are diverse teams coming together,’ Mr Rees added.

The NPA, with other pharmacy organisations, has issued statements condemning the racist violence and supporting pharmacy teams, as well as guidance to help keep themselves and their pharmacies safe.

And Mr Rees said the NPA was ‘calling on the police who have dealt with the far right riots, heroically,’ to ‘also tackle instances of where pharmacy teams are being racially abused’.

‘It's really important that people can talk about being British, being of South Asian heritage, celebrating their success'

Mr Rees also told The Pharmacist that the NPA was ‘very proud’ that the majority of its board were of South Asian heritage. ‘We feel that fairly represents our membership,’ he said.

And he highlighted the NPA's South Asian Heritage Month virtual event next Wednesday: a ‘success stories’ webinar, sharing how five British Asian pharmacists ‘rose to the top of their profession’.

The event will feature four NPA board members - Sehar Shahid, Sukhi Basra, Sanjeev Panesar and Salim Jetha – as well as pharmacist Thorrun Govind sharing their professional journeys as South Asian pharmacists.

‘It's really important that we have an event where people can talk about being British, being of South Asian heritage, celebrating their success,’ Mr Rees said.

‘I'm sure the terrible events of the last week and a half will come up, because that's something that probably the vast majority of people of South Asian heritage are feeling concerned about, sad about, so that that's bound to come up,’ he added.

‘We're really proud that we're running this event, and it's a really important event for us,’ Mr Rees said.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has also recently marked South Asian Heritage Month with an online and in-person event exploring the intersection of South Asian traditional medicine and Western medicine.