Abuse rife for health care staff new shock stats show

THOUSANDS of healthcare staff in Scotland’s largest health board area have suffered physical or verbal abuse over the past year.

New figures show 2,170 people were physically assaulted by patients, 682 were threatened with violence and 717 suffered verbal abuse in Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

That is despite a concerted and ongoing campaign to combat aggression towards NHS staff.

The new figures show a drop from 4,400 recorded incidents the previous year to 3,600 this year, but health chiefs and staff representatives remain concerned at the high levels of abuse towards staff at work.

The health board says violence and aggression are a serious factor for healthcare workers and hope highlighting the issue will help reduce the number of incidents.

Anne MacPherson, director of human resources, said: “Despite us introducing a range of measures to protect our staff we are unfortunately still seeing incidents of both physical and verbal abuse.

“In some instances, staff have required support from Police Scotland because of the danger to their own and patients’ wellbeing and that is unacceptable.

“We must do all we can to protect the delivery of healthcare 24-hours a day, seven days a week and enable staff to fulfil their duties without fear of abuse or assault.”

Charge nurse Teresa Grainger, who is based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, has experienced first hand what it is like to be verbally abused by patients.

She said: “My colleagues and I are all too aware what it is like. But now having had training we feel able to deal with difficult situations.”