'One attack is one too many' - Pennine Acute on abuse from patients

More than a quarter of Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, have experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work over the past 12 months.

Hundreds of employees took part in a national survey to rate their work place.

And 29%, compared with 22% nationally, said they had suffered at the hands of patients or relatives.

2% of those questioned said they had suffered physical violence from colleagues.

A Trust spokesman said: “The safety of our staff is paramount, we do not tolerate violence against staff and we investigate all incidents.

“We work closely with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure incidents are investigated and this has led to successful prosecutions in the past.

“We very much welcome custodial sentences for people convicted of violence against front line staff and we hope it sends out a very strong message that violence will not be tolerated

“No staff should be abused whilst they are trying to help people, they have a right to do their job without the threat of violence or intimidation; just one attack is one too many.

“Hospital staff are here to help patients get better and the vast number of patients and visitors recognise this and give our staff the respect they deserve.”

On the plus side, staff rated Pennine Acute as one of the top NHS organisations in the country when it comes to having to work extra hours and reporting errors and near misses or incidents witnessed in the last month.

A Trust spokesman said: “Pennine Acute Trust staff are more likely than ever to raise a patient safety concern as we have tried hard to increase safety reporting.

“There were 4,369 patient safety incidents at Pennine Acute Trust between April and September 2008 and less than 1% caused severe harm.

“These figures may seem high but it must be remembered that Pennine Acute Trust is one of the largest in the country, operating four hospitals.

“A large proportion of these incidents were slips, trips and falls around inpatient departments and staff work hard to ensure these are avoided where possible.

“However, we understand the need to encourage a strong reporting culture and the figures show how seriously the Trust takes the issue of patient safety.”

Staff said they felt less pressure in their work, had been appraised with personal development plans in the last 12 months (56% compared with 55% nationally), had witnessed less potentially harmful errors, near misses or incidents in the last month (36% compared with 38%), felt that procedures for reporting errors, near misses or incidents were fair and effective and that actions from their employer towards violence and harassment were effective.

However, the Trust is among the worst 20% in the country for staff who believe that their role makes a difference to patients, think that they have an interesting job, believe that they work in a well structured team environment, use flexible working options, experiencing physical violence, harassment, bullying or abuse from patients or their relatives in the last 12 months and staff job satisfaction.

Six out of 11 members of staff said they would recommend Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust as a place to work.