Denis Campbell’s report on the abuse faced by healthcare staff at a Nottingham hospital (They bite, they hit, they spit: patients assault staff at Nottingham hospital, 25 February) is sadly the reality for many healthcare professionals, and Medical Protection Society data suggests that staff shortages and long waiting lists are fuelling this behaviour.
We should not accept that abuse is now part of the job. Experiencing and witnessing physical, sexual or verbal abuse can have a lasting and profound impact on mental health, and this can be damaging for individuals as well as for patient care. It can also result in healthcare professionals needing to take time off work, and even quitting medicine altogether.
The zero-tolerance policy to abuse must be rigorously enforced right across the NHS so that healthcare workers feel their safety is a priority and are empowered to report all abusive behaviour. The policy must also be visible to patients as a deterrent.
Police and crime commissioners, and police forces across the UK should also consider how they can support local healthcare settings – for example, by encouraging the reporting of abuse and offering practical advice on recognising warning signs or de-escalation techniques.
More broadly, there is a need for research to ascertain the additional training needs for staff across the NHS for dealing with conflict and protecting themselves from violence. If we don’t act, we may lose many more skilled, committed healthcare workers at a time when the profession can ill afford it.
Prof Dame Jane Dacre
President, Medical Protection Society
• As health academics based in Nottingham, we are saddened by the reports of increased violence towards staff at the Queen’s Medical Centre, where many of our graduates and colleagues work. There is, however, a sociological explanation to these increased occurrences that needs to be articulated, and that is the concept of horizontal violence.
When any group of people experience oppression, they may “act out” or fight back among themselves, and public sector staff are soft targets. While unable to shout in the face of government ministers, a staff nurse or junior doctor may become an easy target for anger and frustration that needs to be vented. Never in our lifetimes have we seen the political and social oppression that we have witnessed over these last 14 years in the form of austerity and cuts to public services.
The cost of living crisis has tipped people over the edge. After years of political oppression, society is crumbling, and with it our sense of gratitude, kindness and decency. Spare a thought for the healthcare workers who survived Covid and now need to cope with the effects of social breakdown.
Dr Theo Stickley, Dr Alison Edgley and Prof Stephen Timmons
Nottingham
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