Walgreens counts as the latest chain of pharmacies to delay its customers due to staffing shortages and walkouts by pharmacists over work conditions.
Patrons in the Denver area dealt with disruptions like longer wait times and drive-thru closures this week as thousands of Walgreens employees walked off of the job on Monday around the country to protest their work conditions, including understaffing, multiple national outlets report. The walkouts are set to last through Wednesday.
The drugstore corporation, which runs close to 100 locations throughout the Denver area, counts as the nation’s second-largest player in the pharmacy industry, falling only behind CVS. At the end of September, CVS pharmacists also staged walkouts over similar issues.
“A small number of our pharmacies experienced disruptions, no more than a dozen, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” said Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman in an email. With nearly 9,000 locations, he pointed to “only one” closed due to workplace disruption.
At a time of year with the highest rates of respiratory illnesses and seasonal vaccinations, the team at Walgreens understands “the immense pressures felt across the U.S. in retail pharmacy right now,” Engerman wrote. “We are making significant investments in pharmacist wages and hiring bonuses to attract/retain talent in harder to staff locations.”
For CVS locations in Denver, “we’re not seeing any unusual activity regarding unplanned pharmacy closures,” said spokesperson Amy Thibault in an email. “We’re focused on developing a sustainable, scalable action plan to support both our pharmacists and our customers, that can be put in place in markets where support may be needed so we can continue delivering the high-quality care our patients depend on.”
On Tuesday at noon, five patrons queued for the pharmacy at the Walgreens location at 2000 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver, with two more sitting down to wait.
Standing at the end, Denver resident Alex Carrington noted the abnormality of the situation. “Usually, there’s no line,” he said.
At the Walgreens at 360 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, both the drive-thru and consultation window for the pharmacy were closed, with four customers waiting inside. And, at the Walgreens at 120 N. Broadway in Denver, eight people lingered to speak to the pharmacist.
For Denver resident Meaghan Kennedy, the holdup came as no surprise.
“I was here a few months ago, and they were actually shut down because they were so short-staffed,” she said. “I was crossing my fingers. I was like, ‘I really hope they’re not shut down this time.’”
“Exhausted from working my schedule”
The Colorado Pharmacists Society backs the moves by pharmacists and pharmacy staff, and plans to release data from its workplace conditions statewide survey soon. It points to the demands of the profession as “substantial and ever-increasing.”
“The news of pharmacists leaving their jobs in other cities, saying ‘enough’, and walking away, is truly a sign of desperation coming from professionals who, although committed to a lifetime of helping patients, found themselves needing to take a stand,” the organization wrote in a Sept. 29 statement.
President Lisa Nguyen declined to comment on which stores are impacted or how long the walkouts will last.
Nathan McConnell, a former pharmacist at City Market, remembers being “exhausted from working my schedule” to the point that it led to mental health issues like panic attacks. He worked as a manager at the store at 1001 Thompson Road in Granby, and estimates that his schedule spanned more than 50 hours weekly.
“I was spending so much time at the pharmacy because we’re so understaffed,” he said in a phone interview. “All of the responsibility falls on the pharmacist to get things done — and, ultimately, on the pharmacy manager.”
He’s since reached out to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about his situation, which includes issues with higher-ups, and hired a lawyer to pursue legal avenues.
“We remain committed to staffing our pharmacies as we work together to provide quality care for our patients,” a King Soopers spokesperson said in an email.
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