Derby Telegraph

1,000 attacks on NHS staff

Hospital workers assaulted during the Covid-19 crisis

- By EDDIE BISKNELL

MORE Than 1,000 of our local hospital workers have been attacked by patients and relatives while dealing with the Covid-19 crisis.

A staff survey reveals that 1,207 workers at the NHS hospitals in Derby and Burton have been the victims of assaults – but many did not report them. The survey also reveals that many staff had become unwell as a result of the stress of working through the crisis, but chose to go to work despite this.

Gavin Boyle, the Trust’s chief executive, has said any incidents of physical assault against staff are “unacceptab­le” and encouraged employees to speak up and report abuse.

MORE than a thousand Derby and Burton hospital staff fighting to deal with the Covid-19 crisis have been attacked by their own patients, new figures show.

Many of these staff have not officially reported the assaults they have experience­d.

Alongside this, nearly 3,000 Derby and Burton hospital trust staff also claim they have recently been made unwell as a result of work, with many choosing to come to work despite poor health.

During the throes of the pandemic, many said they came to work despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties.

The news comes out of the nowpublish­ed results of the annual NHS staff survey, which was carried out in September 2019 through to November last year.

The time of the survey means many of the recent experience­s reported by staff took place during the pandemic.

The results are broken down by hospital trust. The Local Democracy Reporting Service took a look at the results for the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.

Overall, one in five hospital staff who responded to the survey said they had experience­d violence from patients and the relatives of patients and their carers within the past 12 months 1,207 in total.

Of these staff, the vast majority (80 per cent) are women, with a total of 989 women working at the trust filling out the survey to report recent violent incidents they have faced from patients.

In addition, a further 88 incidents of violence reported by staff in the survey were carried out by their own colleagues and 36 from manageafte­r ment. A large proportion of these assaults will have taken place while staff were combating the pandemic. The survey shows that 46.3 nearly half - of female hospital staff (who make up the majority of staff at the trust) who responded have felt unwell as a result of work-related stress in the past year, much of which will be in the pandemic. This totals 2,371 female staff in the past year.

The level of women reporting they have felt unwell as a result of work stress has increased from 38.3 per cent in 2018.

The level for men is lower at 37.5 per cent - totalling 374 male employees.

A total of 44 per cent of BAME (ethnic minority) staff (421) have reported being unwell as a result of work, up from 32 per cent in 2018.

Meanwhile, figures show that 3,189 Derby and Burton hospital staff had, within the last three months, square in the middle of the pandemic, come into work despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties.

The vast majority of these (80 per cent) were women, who make up most of the trust’s workforce.

In total, half of the female staff who responded to the survey said they recently come to work while feeling too unwell, though this is down from 60 per cent in the previous year.

Hospital leaders have spoken of the need for staff to have time to recover once the influx of Covid inpatients recedes and before moving on to the next challenge presented by enormous patient waiting lists. They have also spoken about staff suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and that help was on hand for this.

The hospital trust on assaults against staff:

Gavin Boyle, the trust’s chief executive, has said any incidents of physical assault against staff are “unacceptab­le” and encouraged employees to speak up and report abuse.

Mr Boyle said: “I couldn’t be more proud of the way all of my colleagues have continued to put our patients first, time and time again, throughout the pandemic.

“The manner in which they have selflessly looked to help others, day day, has been remarkable.

“It’s a sad fact though that, despite all of this, in the latest staff survey, many of my colleagues reported being physically assaulted while at work during this period.

“It seems particular­ly important at this time to acknowledg­e that the majority of my colleagues are women and have been subjected to this unacceptab­le behaviour.

“Whilst some will be attributed to patients with diminished mental capacity, this is by no means always the case.

“This behaviour will never be acceptable at UHDB and I’d urge anyone who experience­s this to always speak up and report this immediatel­y.

“We are committed to protecting all of our people from abuse and will do whatever we can to make sure there is no place for it here.”

The majority of my colleagues are women, subjected to this unacceptab­le behaviour. Gavin Boyle

The hospital trust on work making staff unwell:

Amanda Rawlings, the trust’s director of people and organisati­onal developmen­t, said: “It has been said many times but I just can’t stress enough how grateful we all are for the phenomenal lengths our colleagues have gone to in order to care for our patients and each other throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While we are exceptiona­lly proud of the way our staff have responded to this challenge, we are also conscious of how hard our people have worked and that many will be feeling tired as a consequenc­e of what has been an incredibly difficult period in time.

“The health and well-being of our colleagues is and always will be among our very top priorities as a trust, so it is essential that we continue to provide our staff with any support they need, while also reminding them of the importance of them taking the time to look after themselves too.

“We have a number of support networks and a Trustwide wellbeing programme in place across UHDB to look after our people, including a 24/7 confidenti­al support line, counsellin­g, our Staff Wellbeing Champions initiative, and access to various health and wellbeing activity groups.

“We are absolutely committed to taking the findings of the NHS Staff Survey on board and exploring new ways to improve the way we can support our colleagues, whenever they need us.”

Derby and Burton hospital trust staff can find the contact details for the trust’s Freedom to Speak Up Guardian on the UHDB staff intranet.

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 ??  ?? Staff have been subjected to assaults in hospitals even as they have been helping patients during the pandemic. Many more have reported increased levels of stress
Staff have been subjected to assaults in hospitals even as they have been helping patients during the pandemic. Many more have reported increased levels of stress

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