The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7394 p375
1 April 2006

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Attacks on NHS staff fell in past year, official statistics show

Violent or abusive attacks against NHS staff by patients or their relatives in England have fallen in the past year, according to official statistics published last week.

Over a quarter (28 per cent) of 209,000 NHS staff who took part in a survey said they had been the victim of a violent or abusive outburst at work in 2005 compared with 31 per cent in 2004 and 32 per cent in 2003.

But the Healthcare Commission, which collected the figures as part of its annual NHS staff survey, said it was too early to say whether the downward trend would continue.

In Wales, NHS staff report an average of 22 incidents of verbal or physical abuse every day, according to latest figures released by the audit committee of the Welsh Assembly.

And in 2003–04, NHS trusts in the principality spent £6.3m on either helping to prevent or dealing with the consequences of violence or abuse against its employees, the committee reported.