Five gun incidents and 12 sex attacks
Police called to nearly 300 disturbances at hospitals
Police were called out to five alleged firearms incidents and 12 allegations of sexual assault at two of Ayrshire’s biggest hospitals in the last three years.
A Freedom of Information request, obtained by Post also shows that 175 disturbances at Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, and 82 at University Hospital Ayr also prompted a response from police.
The figures are based on the last three years (2018/19 to 2020/21).
Police were called to investigate eight alleged sexual offences at Crosshouse and four at Ayr.
And there were two incidents at Crosshouse where a firearm was allegedly involved with three firearms incidents recorded within Ayr.
There were also police callouts to 44 allegations of assault within Crosshouse Hospital grounds with 20 recorded at Ayr.
Public nuisance offences, which prompted police to investigate alleged wrongdoing at Crosshouse, sat at 36, while the figure at Ayr was 17.
There were five allegations of hate crime at Crosshouse over the same reporting period, with one alleged incident requiring a police callout at Ayr.
The figures don’t show whether the alleged victims were medical staff, visitors or patients.
However, public sector union UNISON have already revealed that attacks on their NHS members around the country is “on the rise.”
The figures shine a light on the emotional pressures NHS workers and police officers experience in the course of their duty.
They provide an insight into how much NHS and police resources are taken up by those intent on causing trouble. The figures will raise questions about security.
The dangers NHS workers face were tragically highlighted in February when a mother and daughter died after a double stabbing in Kilmarnock.
Kilmarnock NHS worker Emma Robertson Coupland, 39, and her daughter, Nicole Anderson, 24, died in separate but linked incidents that saw Crosshouse Hospital locked down for more than three hours.
Tragically, Emma was found fatally injured in the hospital’s car park of the after being stabbed by her estranged ex-partner Steven Robertson.
The second stabbing occurred 20 minutes later in Kimarnock’s Portland Street, where Nicole was slain by Robertson. Emergency services attended and she was taken to Crosshouse Hospital where she later died.
Robertson, 40, later died after a car he was driving crashed near Ochiltree.
Ayr MP Allan Dorans, a former detective inspector at the Metropolitan Police, slammed those responsible for the startling statistics.
He said: “It is totally unacceptable that anyone can believe it is acceptable to cause a disturbance, assault medical staff and other emergency workers in any circumstances, but especially in situations where an individual is there to receive medical assistance.
“Anyone convicted of such an offence should be subject to the severest penalty allowed under the law.”
Nicola Graham, director of infrastructure and support services, said NHS Ayrshire & Arran has “robust” security polices and procedures in place and that violence and abuse, in any form, will “not be tolerated.”
She continued: “NHS Ayrshire & Arran consider the safety of patients and staff attending our sites is to be of paramount importance.
“We are proud to work in partnership with all emergency services across Ayrshire and Arran, to highlight that violence and abuse in any form will not be tolerated in the work place; to encourage staff to report forms of violence and aggression and ensure a safe, healthy and respectful workplace.
“NHS Ayrshire & Arran care about the impact that acts of violence or verbal assaults may have on the physical and emotional wellbeing of those staff involved. Acts of physical or verbal assaults directed towards staff are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Our staff treat our patients, relatives and anyone else we come into contact with as part of our work activity with dignity and respect. Our staff have the right to be treated with dignity and respect in return.”
NHS Ayrshire & Arran has invested in updating, and in several cases installing new, CCTV security systems across inpatient sites to help bolster security in clinical areas.
Janet Stewart, UNISON’s regional organiser, said: “It is clear that violent assaults , physical and verbal, against our NHS members are rising; indeed it is apparent that workplace violence and aggression against all public sector workers is on the increase.
“Regardless of the circumstance, violence and aggression are not part of any job.
“UNISON has campaigned on the issue of violence at work and our standard aims to deliver a risk-based framework supporting public sector members to work in a safe and secure environment, safeguarding against abuse, aggression and violence. Our members should never be fearful or
apprehensive about coming to work.
“It is increasingly clear that no matter where our members are working violence and aggression are real issues and issues which come in many forms including physical and verbal assaults, incidents leaving our members with physical and psychological injuries in themselves leading to increased time off through sickness absence, isolation from colleagues in the workplace, a loss of confidence, our members leaving their jobs, PTSD and other significant long term psychiatric conditions.
“Across the public sector we, UNISON, through our local branches and our health and safety representatives have a continuing role in making workplaces safer for employees, our members.
“As part of our continuing campaign against violence at work, we continue to: gather accurate data on incidents and levels of violence in the NHS and wider public sector to demonstrate local and national trends and to, hopefully, promote areas of good practice and improve areas of poor practice. Work to ensure all managers are trained and understand their responsibilities to work with our health and safety representatives to complete risk assessments and put in place the right protections for staff.
“Ensure the correct training is in place for staff to enable them to deal with challenging situations - including de-escalation and restraint where necessary.
“Ensure staff have access to quality physical and psychological support if they are assaulted at work.
“Ensure that prosecutions follow where staff are assaulted.”
Anyone convicted of such an offence should be subject to the serverest penalty allowed under the law