NHS staff ‘need maximum protection from violence’

The NHS must ensure it provides “maximum protection” for its staff against verbal abuse and physical assaults from hospital patients, according to Unison, the country’s largest trade union.

Matt Smith, Unison’s Scottish secretary, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Scotland Live programme that the lack of respect shown towards NHS staff had become a “worrying problem” and that the union supported legislation to help protect staff from attacks.

The announcement follows the sentencing of a convicted rapist for nine months, following attacks on staff at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. However, the patient will return to the hospital because he requires kidney dialysis treatment three times a week.

Mr Smith remarked: “It’s important that convictions do take place in these circumstances. We are clearly concerned about any of our staff who face assault – not just this particular case – and we do ask that they’re brought to court.”

“What we will not tolerate is a situation where anyone seeks either to assault or abuse a member of staff, either verbally or physically, and in these circumstances we will react to it,” he added.

Mr Smith concluded by saying that the increasing prevalence of such attacks is a matter of continuing concern and that there is too often a conflict of interest between the needs of a patient and the safety of staff.

Figures from 2004-05 show that there were 759 successful prosecutions for assaults on NHS staff, according to Personnel Today Magazine.

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