Hospital pays £6m for security as 300 staff attacked every year
HOSPITAL staff have endured 300 assaults a year – forcing one Midland NHS trust to fork out £6 million on private security.
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has spent nearly £5.8 million on security over four years.
During this time staff at the trust were physically assaulted 1,215 times.
The last two years have seen 353 and 283 assaults per year, compared with 261 and 318 in the two before.
Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust spent £1.3 private security same period.
In total, 53 English NHS hospital trusts provided data showing they spent £89 million on private security between 2014/15 and 2017/18 while 82 provided data showing more than 12,000 assaults on staff during this time.
Kim Sunley, national officer for the Royal College of Nurs- Children’s Foundation million on during the ing, said: “These attacks can cause severe injury and mental trauma that can last for years.
“Yet, too often, assaults are seen as part of the job by employers.
“Our nurses have reported some truly horrific incidents, including eye-gouging – and one was beaten so severely, she was knocked unconscious.
“It took six members of staff to pull the patient off her and for weeks after the attack, she was too traumatised to leave her house. It was months before she could front-line role.”
Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “This is a huge problem for staff in emergency departments. Alcohol plays a massive part. When you mix that with everything else that can go on in an A&E, you can have a cocktail for violence.
“There has always been a need for security, but it has had to get much heavier 24/7. It can be horrendous for staff realising that being at work is not safe for them.” return to a