NHS attacks 'must be stopped'

One in three nurses has experienced a violent attack

Action must be taken to curb the "shocking" levels of violence experienced by NHS staff, MPs have said.

Latest figures show there are around 260 attacks on health workers each day.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is calling on the Department of Health and the NHS to introduce measures to better protect workers.

It says the system for reporting incidents needs to be tightened up.

The calls came as the government announced it would be introducing "conflict resolution training" for frontline NHS staff, which will teach workers how to spot a potentially dangerous situation and defuse it.

It is shocking that nurses and other NHS staff, who care for others, should be subject to such high, and rising, levels of violence and aggression Edward Leigh MP, Public Accounts Committee

Nurses, ambulance workers and GPs will be the first groups to be trained when the scheme begins next year.

There were over 95,000 reported incidents of violence against NHS staff in 2001 to 2002.

But the committee warned there could be many more attacks taking place which were not being reported.

It is calling for a national compulsory reporting system to be introduced with set definitions of incidents, so they can be accurately recorded.

Stress

At the moment, NHS Trusts are not using standard definitions, making it harder to collate information about the kind of incidents staff experience.

NHS Trusts should take a consistent approach in the way they reviewed all serious incidents, and provide more support for staff affected by violence or aggression, the committee said.

The report found there had been some improvement in the reporting of violence incidents since the launch of an NHS zero tolerance campaign in 1999.

But it said there was still a "significant level" of under-reporting.

Staff who are the victims of violence can suffer injury and distress.

In the longer term, it can lead to stress, absence due to ill-health, lower morale and productivity, and even make them quit their jobs.

The PAC praised the NHS for working more closely with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, but said there was room for more improvement in both response times and in pressing charges.

It also welcomed the plan for the new Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, set up to improve security arrangements in the NHS, to work with the Association of Chief Police Officers.

'Right to safety'

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: "It is shocking that nurses and other NHS staff, who care for others, should be subject to such high, and rising, levels of violence and aggression.

"The Department for Health and the NHS have improved awareness and reporting, and developed a range of measures to deter potential attackers," Mr Leigh, MP for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, said.

"But this is not enough; I want to see them reverse the rising trend in the number of incidents."

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Nursing said one in three nurses had experienced physical violence.

"Nurses have a right to be safe at work irrespective of whether they are based in hospitals, in the community or other healthcare premises," she said.

"Violence against nurses has an immediate impact on the delivery of quality care, and long-term implications.

"With recruitment and retention being key to delivery of quality care, addressing violence must be top priority for all employers."

She said very few assaults led to prosecutions, and backed a strengthening of the roles of the police and the CPS.

Progress

Health minister Lord Norman Warner said: "There can be no excuse for violent or abusive behaviour towards NHS staff and it must not be tolerated in the modern NHS.

He added that action was already being taken "in accordance with the key recommendations of the report".

The Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel welcomed the report.

"Without effective reporting systems and aggression-management strategies, ambulance personnel will continue to be a major target for violence - which has been borne out by the 13% increase in violent incidents reported in the NHS for the year 2001," said a spokesman.

"The absence of harmonisation in this area continues to compromise the ability to make statistical analysis of violent incidents the first line of defence in the protection of ambulance staff from attacks, while responding to 999 calls in the UK."