Hospitals have high rates of assaults

WARRINGTON And Halton Hospitals have one of the highest rates of assaults on staff in England, figures have suggested.

NHS statistics for the facilities illustrate attacks on workers at the trust have risen from 20.2 per 1,000 workers in 2010-11 to 52 per 1,000 in 201516. The number of recorded assaults at the hospitals has risen 155% from 83 to 212 over the time period.

At the Walton Centre, 118 assaults were recorded in 2015-16, an 1,586% rise from just seven recorded in 201011, the biggest increase in England over the period.

This means the rate of assaults has risen from 7.5 per 1,000 workers to 89.5 per 1,000, the highest rate in England.

At St Helens And Knowsley, the number of assaults has risen 400% from 32 in 2010-11 to 160 in 2015-16, with the rate jumping from 7.5 assaults per 1,000 staff members to 20.6 per 1,000,

However, the scale of violence may be even greater, as Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests by campaigning organisation 38 Degrees found a higher number of assaults recorded than reported in the official figures from NHS Protect.

At Warrington and Halton, the average number of assaults recorded a year between 2011-12 and 2015-16 was 38 but the FOI found an average of 81 per year, with consistent underreporting over the five years.

The official figures for Wirral show an average of 22 assaults per year, while 38 Degree’s FOI showed 33 a year. NHS figures show there were 20,018 assaults on staff across England in 2015-16, a 49% rise from 13,436 in 2010-11, as the number of assaults has risen steadily over the six-year period.

However, an investigation released on Saturday, February 25, by 38 Degrees has revealed these reported numbers may be an underestimate of the true levels of violence faced by NHS workers.

The organisation is calling for attacks on NHS staff to be made a specific offence, in line with attacks on police officers, to act as a deterrent.

MPs were to debate the issue on Monday, February 27, in Parliament.

The campaigning organisation submitted FOI requests to NHS hospital trusts and found that in 26 of those trusts, attacks on NHS staff have doubled or more during a six year period from 2010-11 to 2015-2016.

The report also highlights the black hole in reporting on cases of assault on NHS staff. In 25 of the 42 trusts where comparable data exists between the FOI requests and official figures from 2011-12 to 2015-16, it reveals under-reporting of assaults on NHS hospital staff.

It also found seven trusts where attacks on hospital staff have been under-reported every single year from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

NHS Protect, the Government body set up to advise and support the NHS on staff safety, is currently running a staff consultation on the issue, which is due to end on March 1 and Parliament debated the issue on Monday, February 27.

Hertsmere Conservative MP Oliver Dowden will lead the the Westminster Hall debate, which follows a petition on the Parliament website that reached nearly 117,000 signatures.

Laura Townshend, Director at 38 Degrees, said: “This investigation exposes the urgent need to make sure British law protects NHS staff just as much as they care for us. Making assaults against NHS staff a specific offence would act as a deterrent and could help halt this shocking rise.

“Being a doctor, nurse or midwife in today’s NHS is hard enough as it is. It’s time MPs stood up for the staff that keep our health service going.”