28 March 2003
Violence and aggression against staff could be costing the NHS £69m a year, the National Audit Office said this week.
In a report, A safer place to work: protecting NHS hospital and ambulance staff from violence and aggression, the auditor said two government initiatives had done much to improve staff protection and increase awareness of the problem.
However, between 1998/99 and 2001/02, the number of reported incidents had increased by 47% and the health service logged 95,500 physical or verbal attacks in 2001/02. Only a fifth of trusts had met the Department of Health's target of reducing incidents by 20% by April 2002.
The figures will worry ministers – the clampdown on violence is seen as a major element in the efforts to recruit and retain much-needed staff, particularly nurses.
They will also be alarmed that trusts told the NAO that higher workloads to reduce waiting list times and greater patient expectations have contributed to the increase in violent incidents.
Auditor general Sir John Bourn acknowledged that the NHS had to some extent been a victim of its own success. Awareness of the problem had been raised by the NHS Zero Tolerance campaign, and the Improving Working Lives initiative had improved the recording of incidents.
But he added that more needed to be done on risk assessment, staff training, following up reported incidents and establishing partnerships with other agencies such as the police.
Bourn said the £69m-a-year cost excluded staff replacement and the human costs, which he said were substantial.
He said: 'Apart from the immediate impact on the individuals concerned, the experience or threat of violence causes increased stress and sickness absence, lowers staff morale and drives individuals out of the health sector at a time of serious staff shortages,' he added.
Edward Leigh, Commons Public Accounts Committee chair, said the report highlighted a growing problem.
'It is a truly awful state of affairs that nurses and other health care staff, whose job it is to make us better, face levels of violence and aggression that are much higher than most other workers might encounter,' he said.
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