Megan and James plead with the public to stop acts of violence and aggression towards our staff | Latest news

Megan and James plead with the public to stop acts of violence and aggression towards our staff

Anti-violence campaign

UHDB colleagues have shared their experiences of being assaulted and threatened while at work – to help us spread the message that there is absolutely no excuse to behave like this in our hospitals.

Despite their heroic efforts throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have sadly still seen a sharp rise of UHDB staff experiencing physical violence, aggression and abuse from patients and hospital visitors over the last year. 

The results from the latest National Staff Survey showed that, of the UHDB colleagues who completed the survey, 18% said they had experienced physical violence at the hands of hospital visitors while at work over the last 12 months, with 25% experiencing abuse of some kind.     

This alarming trend has been mirrored within Royal Derby Hospital’s A&E department, where we have seen a 29% increase in physically violent and aggressive behaviour against colleagues, compared to the year before – a figure which is both saddening and completely unacceptable.

James Cawtheray is among those to have been physically assaulted while at work, with the A&E nurse suffering injuries after being kicked in the chest by a patient during a shocking incident in June 2020 that also resulted in a member of the Trust’s Security team being bitten.

“This incident made me feel scared to do the job that I do,” said James.

“I see this happening regularly and I think it should stop. I don’t feel that our staff should be assaulted and abused like this when we’re just trying to do our job helping people, the job that we’ve trained to do.”

Megan Williams, A&E sister at RDH, has worked at UHDB for 15 years but admitted that the regularity of incidents of violence and aggression from patients and hospital visitors have this year become the worst she’s seen, with the nurse experiencing some horrendous abuse first-hand.

She said: “I’ve been called many insulting names, I’ve been threatened with sexual violence, I’ve been threatened to be stabbed, and people have threatened to come after my family as well. I’ve also seen the impact of violence and aggression towards my colleagues.

“I’ve seen staff be assaulted, be punched, kicked, and people have threatened to infect us with Covid-19 by spitting at us. You just feel so powerless and defenceless when this kind of thing happens. It’s just not acceptable.”   

UHDB has a strict, zero-tolerance policy against anybody who is violent, aggressive, or who threatens our staff while they’re at work and we would always encourage colleagues to report incidents of abuse when they happen, so that further action can be taken.  

Dr Magnus Harrison, Executive Medical Director at UHDB, said: “Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, our staff have worked incredibly hard; harder than they ever imagined that they were going to have to. I’m dismayed that some of them have had to experience abuse at work. As an organisation, we have an absolute zero-tolerance to anybody abusing our staff in any way, whilst they’re at work. There is no excuse for this behaviour at all.”

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