Incidents of violence at health centres and GP surgeries have almost doubled in five years, according to figures. Public order offences including threatening behaviour have also increased and incidents of stalking and harassment at GP surgeries have almost tripled, the data reported by the BMJ showed.
Abuse of medical staff is “entirely unacceptable”, chairman of the Royal College of GPs Professor Martin Marshall said, as he called on the Government to “urgently” deliver on its manifesto pledge to increase the number of GPs and practice staff. He said that while doctors understand patients’ frustrations about accessing care, “this is not the fault of GPs and our teams – the real issue, is a shortage of GPs and other practice staff”.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the figures make for “alarming reading” and urged the Government to be “open and honest with the public” that there are severe shortages of GPs and a lack of capacity to meet record demand. The BMJ said its data – from freedom of information requests to UK police forces – showed that of the 32 out of 45 forces which were able to provide complete and comparable data for the past five years, 1,068 incidents of violence at health centres and GP surgeries occurred in 2021-22.
