Pharmacy security

A robbery is decided in its first seconds, and the greatest danger is a robber who is startled or thinks someone is fighting back. So staff learn one simple sequence, written down and rehearsed:

1. During: stay calm, no sudden movements, say what you are about to do before doing it (“I’m opening the drawer”), avoid staring the robber in the eye.
2. Observe: height, clothes, voice, marks, what they touched, where they went and how — as much as you can without showing it.
3. After: lock the door, call the police on 100, or 112 if anyone is hurt, and touch nothing the robber touched.
4. Record: each witness writes down separately what they saw before talking to the others; the camera footage is secured before it is overwritten.

No amount of cash and no medicine is worth an injury. The same goes for the guard: faced with violence or a weapon, they observe, record and call the police — the limits of the role are in what a security guard may and may not do.

The general loss-prevention method — where stock goes missing, layout, measuring the stock gap — is in retail loss prevention. In a pharmacy, add three things:

• Small, high-value items in a display case behind or beside the counter, not on the last shelf by the door.
• Empty dummy packs on the shelf for frequently stolen items, with the real product handed over at the counter.
• No blind spots: mirrors or low shelving so the pharmacist sees the whole floor while serving.

If someone seems to be hiding a product, what staff and the guard may and may not do is in shoplifting: what a guard is allowed to do.

• Serving hatch: the sale happens through the hatch and the door stays locked; the pharmacist does not open up “just to show something”.
• Light outside, a view inside: a well-lit entrance and no posters blocking the window, so the street can see in.
• Panic button: silent, linked to an alarm receiving centre, placed where it can be pressed unseen.
• Phone and contacts: a mobile on you at all times, with the keyholder and 100 on speed dial.
• Don’t be alone if you can avoid it: a second person, a patrol that passes by, or a guard during duty hours.

This is security practice only. For whatever applies to night duty itself — hours, how customers are served — ask your local pharmacists’ association.

• Till: keep only the shift’s float; the rest goes into a safe, ideally time-delayed, during the day and not only at closing.
• Bank deposits: at varying times and by varying routes, not the same person at the same hour every day.
• Closing: two people where possible, with counting done away from the window.
• High-risk medicines: a locked cabinet, keys held by named people, counts and a log; any discrepancy is checked the same day.

If specific storage obligations apply to certain medicines in your pharmacy, they come first; this guide only describes the security routine that complements them.

The Hellenic DPA’s Directive 1/2011, which still applies alongside the GDPR (DPA), has no article that mentions pharmacies. Article 19 covers “shops of every kind” and article 20 hospitals, clinics, doctors’ surgeries and other places where health services are provided. Which one applies to your pharmacy is a question for your data protection officer or lawyer. As a minimum, article 19 sets out:

• Where: entrances and exits, tills and cash-keeping areas, stock rooms, plant rooms, car parks (art. 19 §2).
• Customer floor: only by exception (art. 19 §3); never in areas where staff work that are not open to the public (§4).
• Sparingly: milder means always come first, and the Directive gives detectors at entrances or “hiring specialised staff” as examples (art. 19 §1).
• No sound: processing audio is prohibited (art. 6 §5).

The most sensitive spot is the counter. A prescription, a screen or a medicine pack legible on camera can reveal the customer’s health — that is, “data concerning health” under GDPR art. 4(15), whose processing is prohibited as a rule (art. 9(1), with the exceptions in 9(2)). And whatever is recorded must be limited to what is necessary (art. 5(1)(c)). In practice: angle the camera from above onto the drawer and the hands, not over the pharmacist’s shoulder onto the screen and the paper.

The general rules apply too: a sign before the camera’s field of view, deletion within 15 working days if nothing happens, no use for monitoring staff — in detail in CCTV and GDPR for businesses. On choosing the system: how to choose a CCTV system.

An alarm is only as good as the procedure behind it: who receives the signal, how it is verified, when the police are called and who comes with the keys. The full sequence is in alarm and police procedure.

A guard in a pharmacy deters by being there, watches the door while staff serve, and in an incident observes, records and calls the police. OVIT works with local teams, and patrols, incidents and reports are visible on the Guardly platform — the same picture for you and for the operations desk. For a proposal fitted to your pharmacy: contact us.