Thousands of hospital staff are reporting claims of sexual assaults and harassment by patients, an investigation has found, prompting calls for ministers to address the “daily threat of abuse” faced by doctors and nurses.
More than 20,000 alleged incidents of sexual violence and sexual misconduct by patients on hospital staff were recorded in the five years to 2022 by 212 NHS trusts in England, freedom of information (FoI) requests by the Guardian and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found.
The 20,928 cases accounted for just under 60% of the total alleged incidents trusts disclosed. Allegations included claims of rape, sexual assault, harassment, stalking and sexualised remarks.
Experts cautioned that the figures were likely to be a serious underestimate as staff are often deterred from making complaints when patients abuse them.
Deeba Syed, a senior legal officer at the Rights of Women helpline, said: “Women tell us they are expected to continue to care for patients who are abusive or harassing without efforts to adequately safeguard them from further harassment.
“We hear worrying reports of women feeling pressured into not raising formal grievances and instead being transferred to different departments or locations. They tell us it is argued that this is more expedient than moving the harassing patient, despite victims feeling this is unsafe to others and a punishment on them.”
Katie, not her real name, a junior doctor in the south-east of England, said patients had made sexual comments about her since she was a student.
“From the word go within clinical placement, I always felt very heavily sexualised by patients,” she said. “One time, when I had to get close up to a patient’s face to examine his eyes, the patient started licking his lips and rubbing himself. I was 19 or 20 at the time and the consultant had left the room – I was completely terrified.”
She said she has also experienced sinister, crude comments, like being asked if she was going to “pleasure” a male patient. Katie said she did not feel she could tell anyone as she found most of the consultants intimidating.
The everyday harassment has made her reevaluate her career path and she is hoping to go into obstetrics and gynaecology so she does not have to treat men. “I find the sexual harassment affects me too much and makes me feel like shit.”
The Guardian and BMJ investigation found trusts recorded 35,606 sexual safety incidents, a term that covers a spectrum of behaviours from abusive remarks to rape, allegedly perpetrated by staff, patients or visitors in NHS hospitals in England between 2017 and 2022.
While the majority were cases of patient-on-staff abuse, nearly 7,500 were allegations of patients abusing other patients and more than 3,000 were cases of staff abusing patients.
Responding to the findings, Simon Fleming, an orthopaedic surgeon and co-author of a 2021 report on sexual assault in surgery for the Royal College of Surgeons, said the NHS needed to take a more robust approach to sexual misconduct by patients.
He said: “Patients abuse staff often. Some of this is normalised, some of it less so. What you permit, you promote, and the NHS needs to stop permitting patients and staff behaving in a way that makes healthcare less safe for all of us.”
Some NHS workers do feel able to speak out. Charlotte Miller, a paramedic at Westminster ambulance station, London, said her employers were “incredible” when she reported being molested while attending to a patient on Edgware Road, west London, in October 2022. The patient, Naveed Ahmed, in his mid-30s, was jailed for nine months in November 2022.
Miller said: “He had already told my crewmate and I we were sexy and had been leering at us, but then he grabbed my crotch. I was really shocked. I’ve had comments before, but that was the first time that someone actively tried to grope me. I didn’t know what he was going to do next.”
As soon as she radioed for help, the police were called and her station sent a colleague, along with an incident response officer. “I had all these phone calls from various managers to make sure I was OK, they told me to have the rest of my shift off and go home to rest. They constantly checked in on me in the days afterwards and helped support me while I made my statements to the police. I couldn’t ask for any better management, if I’m honest.
“I hope this will encourage other people to have the confidence to report these things,” she said.
Dr Becky Cox, a co-founder of Surviving in Scrubs, said: “The stark findings of this investigation should put into sharp focus the work that the health secretary and NHS leaders need to do to ensure the freedom of NHS staff to work without threat of sexual violence from patients and other staff members.
“It was not long ago we were being heralded as pandemic heroes by the government and cheered by the general public, yet we continue to face unsafe working conditions and the daily threat of abuse.”
Surviving in Scrubs lists more than 150 personal accounts of sexual harassment and abuse. They include cases of patients assaulting, molesting and sexualising nurses and doctors.
The health secretary, Steve Barclay, said: “NHS leaders have a statutory duty of care to look after their staff and patients and prevent harassment, abuse or violence in the workplace. I expect employers to be proactive in ensuring staff and patients are fully supported, their concerns listened to and acted on with appropriate action taken where necessary.”
Dr Navina Evans, the chief workforce officer at NHS England, said the health service should not tolerate any sexual misconduct, violence, harassment or abuse.
“NHS England has established a dedicated team to ensure people who experience violence and abuse are supported in the workplace, and there is greater provision of support for all victims and survivors. All NHS trusts and organisations have measures in place to ensure immediate action is taken in any cases reported to them and I strongly encourage anyone who has experienced any misconduct to come forward, report it and seek support.”
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
