New figures for physical assaults on NHS Staff published
Last year (2013/14) there were 68,683 physical assaults recorded across the whole of the NHS, 47,184 (69%) took place in mental health and learning disability settings.
Mental Health remains by far the most violent sector of the NHS with around 1 in 5 staff reporting they were physically assaulted.
The number of total assaults in the NHS has increased 21% in the last five years, in mental health and learning disability the increase was 23%
Medical Factors
For the last five years the figures have also recorded how many assaults were due to ‘medical factors’, (i.e. due to the patient’s illness)
In 2009/10 there were 22,624 ‘medical factor’ assaults (39% of the total)
In 2013/14 there were 38,140 such attacks (55% of the total)
Whilst some Trusts report all assaults are due to medical factors, others record very few. (Oxleas reports none at all).
17 mental health trusts took no legal action as a result of the physical violence suffered by their staff.
The reasons for this are unclear, but may point to a trust wide difficulty in acknowledging and dealing with patient violence.
SOURCE: NHS Protect
I don’t think deaths will ever stop because we don’t get treated….the attitudes from staff towards us is terrible…I would love for you to wire me up when I’m ill so you can see how I am treated when I am ill….I get so scared to turn to them when I am ill and try not to contact them bit I get so scared of my illness I give in sometimes and ring them knowing I am going to get talked to badly…I can’t turn to the crisis team they are useless and going to a and e is a recipe for disaster….they don’t do anything anyway….my compulsions to attack people when I am ill are so bad I won’t go outside when I’m like that never mind turning to people who are going to treat me bad.it would be highly irrissponsable of mr