Crackdown on hospital violence as 1 in 7 staff are victims of attacks
THE Health Secretary has pledged a crackdown on violent patients and relatives amid a surge in attacks on NHS staff.
A shocking 15 per cent of employees – one in seven – have been attacked or threatened in the past 12 months, the highest rate in five years. Matt Hancock will today roll out the health service’s first violence reduction strategy to protect vulnerable staff.
Nurses and other employees who work in high-risk areas – including paramedics, frontline A&E employees and mental health nurses – will be trained in specialist techniques to diffuse hostile situations.
Health trusts will be obliged to report all attacks to the police so they can be properly investigated and the offenders prosecuted.
The rise in attacks has been partly blamed on longer waiting times coupled with staffing shortages, which has led to patients and relatives becoming increasingly frustrated. Growing numbers of patients with mental health problems and dementia – which causes outbursts of aggression – are also thought to be behind the increase.
Mr Hancock, who will launch the strategy at a violence reduction summit in Central London, said: ‘It is hard to understand how anyone could think of attacking nurses, doctors, paramedics and emergency services personnel as they go about their jobs of caring for us. Yet the sad truth is that it is something experienced by many NHS staff.
‘For those in the most unpredictable, frontline settings – paramedics, accident and emergency staff and mental health professionals – dealing with violent or abusive patients
‘Lives turned upside down’
happens all too often. NHS staff dedicate their lives to protecting and caring for us in our times of greatest need and for any one of them to be subject to aggression or violence is completely unacceptable.
‘I have made it my personal mission to ensure NHS staff feel safe and secure at work.’
The strategy will involve employees who are most at risk of violence sent on conflict resolution training.
Figures from the latest 2017 NHS staff survey, which involved 465,558 employees, showed that 15.2 per cent had experienced violence at work in the past 12 months.
Kim Sunley, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘Victims of assault at work have their lives turned upside down and it affects their wellbeing, their families and their livelihood and there’s always more we can do to support them.’