Attacks on staff at local hospitals increased in 2016

Rochdale Infirmary

Attacks on staff at Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust increased in 2016, the annual NHS Staff Survey has found.

The increase at the Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General, Royal Oldham and North Manchester General, represents a higher figure than the average of 15 percent.

In 2016, 16 percent of staff reported they had experienced physical violence from patients, their relatives or the public in the last 12 months- up five percent from 2015. The percentage of staff experiencing physical violence from staff remained unchanged at two percent.

• 64 percent of staff reported the most recent experience of violence (up from just 51 percent the year before)
• .30 percent of staff reported they had experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives and the public in the last year, an increase of six percent. However, staff experiencing similar behaviour from staff decreased by four percent to 27.

Staff reporting harassment and bullying behaviours were up from 2015 at 43 percent, but remain lower than reports of physical violence.

Glynis Jones, security management specialist at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We take the safety and security of our staff extremely seriously. As a priority over the next 12 months we are looking at what we can do to reduce the amount of violence staff experience at work from patients and the public, particularly front line staff, to ensure they feel safe and supported at work.

“This will be achieved through enhanced staff training in conflict resolution and physical intervention, improved communication and support from other agencies including the police. Staff are actively encouraged to report any violent or abusive incidents and the number of staff doing so has increased over the last year. This is due to the fact that we have nurtured a strong incident reporting culture. While physical assaults for 2015/16 have increased, this has been due to an increase in the reporting of incidents caused by medical conditions such as dementia, confusion and delirium, which staff did not always report in the past. Other incidents of physical violence are actually decreasing.

“Our security staff are highly trained and our security managers liaise regularly with the neighbourhood police associated with all our hospitals. We work closely with our frontline staff, particularly in our A&E departments and Urgent Care Centre, our security teams and Greater Manchester Police, to look at how we can address and reduce incidents of violence. We are currently in the process of improving the CCTV and lighting at North Manchester General Hospital, which will help to deter and identify the perpetrators of violence.”

4068 staff from Pennine took part in the survey for a response rate of 45 percent, up from 29 percent the year before.