‘None of us feel safe’: attacks on A&E nurses double in six years as waits rise | NHS

Attacks on A & E nurses have almost doubled in the past six years, incidents often involving frustrated patients to wait so long for care.

According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the nurses were struck, spitting, pinned against a wall, had a pointed and threatened weapon of making them throw acid.

NHS figures show that the number of incidents of violence against nurses in A & E units in hospitals in England increased from 2,122 in 2019 to 4,054 in 2024 – an increase of 91%.

“Behind these shocking characters is an ugly truth,” said Professor Nicola Ranger, the secretary general of the RCN, who obtained the data using the laws on freedom of information.

“The dedicated and workers’ nursing staff are faced with violent upward attacks due to systemic failures that are not the fault on their part. Each incident is unacceptable, “she said.

Rachelle McCarthy, accusation nurse in the East Midlands, said that in her department “even the patients you expect to be placids become angry due to the duration of their duration”.

Once she was struck “square in the face” by “a drunk man with 6 feet 2 inches,” she said.

In another incident, a patient in the waiting room of the A&E where the Senior Sari Tappy sister works in eastern London hit her in the head, hitting her unconscious. “Violence is horrible. And it’s just constant. Nurses. Doctors. Receptionists. None of us feel safe, “she said.

A senior nurse in the southwest of England said that she had repeatedly seen violence against the staff of her services, including a patient “pinning a nurse against a wall” and another colleague struck by a patient “in the groin and the stomach”.

The number of attacks on the A & E staff at Southmead Hospital in Bristol increased from 83 in 2019 to 152 last year. They doubled at Manchester Royal Infimmy from 39 to 79 during the same period, and went from 13 to 89 at Maidstone Kent Hospital, NHS figures showed RCN.

Daniel Elkeles, managing director of the NHS Providers hospitals, said: “These results are absolutely shocking.

“NHS staff need a safe and respectful environment to deal with patients, without a threat of violence or intimidation, whether in hospital, mental health, community or ambulance.

“The delays for treatment are frustrating for patients and staff. All efforts are made to maintain them at least. ”

The union required immediate action from the government to limit the “growing tide of violence”. He wants a reduction in long expectations for patients in A & e, the end of overcrowded hospitals having to use the “corridor care” and a solution to the shortages of current nurses in the NHS.

A separate RCN analysis shows the number of patients who had to wait more than 12 hours in A & e climbed twenty-pliés between 2019 and 2014.

An increasing number of hospitals have hired more safety personnel, issued clinical personnel with knife vests and installed a closed circuit.

Rebecca Smith, director of the System and Social Partnership at the NHS Confederation, said that the almost doubling of the attacks exposed by figures was “deeply disturbing”.

“No one should have to deal with violence at work – it is completely unacceptable.

The RCN sent a freedom of information to the 129 NHS trustees in England, which at least have an emergency service. Among the 89 (69%) responded. However, the real figures will be higher because the union only required data relating to the largest A & e that the trust executes.

Their figures show an implacable increase in incidents during the six years, from 2,122 in 2019 to 2,297 in 2020, then 2,851 in 2021, 3,120 in 2022, 3,405 in 2023 and finally 4,054 in 2024.

The NHS Protect published annual figures for violence, harassment and abuse of NHS staff until it was dissolved in 2016.

The most recent NHS staff survey, published in March, revealed that a seven worker (14.4%) had suffered physical violence from patients, relatives or other public members the previous year.

Duncan Burton, director of nursing for England, said that it was “completely unacceptable that NHS staff are confronted with acts of physical violence of patients and the public at work”.

He added: “The NHS staff do incredible work every day to take care of others – and they have the right to come to work without fear of being injured. We encourage staff to report all the incidents to their employer and to employers to inform the police if necessary so that the authors can be brought to justice.”

The Secretary of Health, Wes Street, said: “I am dismayed by these results. The nurses devote their lives to help others and deserve to do with their work without violence or intimidation. Anyone who violates this basic principle will feel the whole strength of the law. ”