Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to combat the abuse of NHS staff.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Everyone working in the National Health Service had a fundamental right to be safe at work. NHS England’s NHS Violence Reduction Programme aims to prevent and reduce violence and aggression from patients, their families and the public, and mitigate the effects of violence and abuse on NHS staff.
A key part of this has been the creation of Violence Prevention and Reduction Standards, which help NHS organisations assess their arrangements for managing the risk of violence towards staff. Work is underway with integrated care systems to improve system working and skill mix training in tackling violence, embedding a longer term, preventative approach in line with the World Health Organization and Home Office guidance.
NHS England has invested £8.4 million into the ambulance service sector to explore the efficacy of body worn cameras in reducing violence and abuse. All ambulance trusts are now trialling the cameras and an independent evaluation is underway with a final report expected at the end of the 2024. In addition, NHS England have been working with the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, to produce a national communications campaign in response to the rising levels of aggression, verbal and physical assaults against NHS ambulance staff.
The Government legislated last year through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act to double the sentence for assaults on emergency workers to a maximum of two years.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the extent of abuse of NHS staff.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We do not currently have a national mechanism to capture and report incidents of violence and aggression in the National Health Service. Data is held at a local level.
At a national level, data on self-reported violent incidents is gathered through the NHS Staff Survey. Results from the 2022 NHS Staff Survey indicated that 14.7% of NHS staff have self-reported that they have experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months.
27.8% of NHS staff who completed the NHS Staff Survey experienced at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients or service users, their relatives or members of the public. This figure is similar to previous years’ NHS Staff Survey data.
NHS England has commissioned a number of data insight workstreams to better understand the current landscape of statistics, data reporting and associated challenges. This includes a national review of all available data and intelligence sources, an analysis of the costs of violence to the health care system in England and a review of the impact on the safety and wellbeing of NHS staff.
The Ministry of Justice collects data on prosecution, conviction and sentences for the offence of assault on an emergency worker, although it does not identify the type of emergency worker. This data is available in the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly and the Outcomes of Offence Tool and Offence Group Classification: Criminal Justice System Statistics Quarterly: December 2022, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many incidents of abuse of NHS staff have resulted in criminal prosecution in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We do not currently have a national mechanism to capture and report incidents of violence and aggression in the National Health Service. Data is held at a local level.
At a national level, data on self-reported violent incidents is gathered through the NHS Staff Survey. Results from the 2022 NHS Staff Survey indicated that 14.7% of NHS staff have self-reported that they have experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months.
27.8% of NHS staff who completed the NHS Staff Survey experienced at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients or service users, their relatives or members of the public. This figure is similar to previous years’ NHS Staff Survey data.
NHS England has commissioned a number of data insight workstreams to better understand the current landscape of statistics, data reporting and associated challenges. This includes a national review of all available data and intelligence sources, an analysis of the costs of violence to the health care system in England and a review of the impact on the safety and wellbeing of NHS staff.
The Ministry of Justice collects data on prosecution, conviction and sentences for the offence of assault on an emergency worker, although it does not identify the type of emergency worker. This data is available in the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly and the Outcomes of Offence Tool and Offence Group Classification: Criminal Justice System Statistics Quarterly: December 2022, a copy of which is attached.