In the lead up to Christmas, staff from A&E departments at north Cumbria’s hospitals have shared their experiences of dealing with abuse and poor behaviour while at work.
The North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, said frontline workers faced two or three incidents of verbal aggression daily, alongside less frequent physical assaults which are reported and pursued through the police where appropriate.
Dr Emma Farrow, consultant in emergency medicine, has issued an appeal to people to think about the impact that repeated behaviour can have on individual staff members who have dedicated their career to care for patients at their time of need.
She said: “When our staff face aggression or sometimes even physical violence, it can have a serious impact on their shift, their day, their wellbeing and ultimately their ability to provide high quality care.
“This can result in instances where staff are then absent from work and have a much longer term impact on their health. NHS staff are here to help you and they deserve to be treated with respect and kindness, while they are at work.”
“Our Human campaign is our way of reminding patients and their loved ones that our colleagues are all human too, each with their own personal lives, responsibilities and vulnerabilities. We encourage everyone to think about the impact that their behaviour can have on our colleagues.
“The vast majority of our patients are kind and understanding, and we do want people to speak up if they are concerned, but we would ask that this is done in a respectful way.”
A&E staff member experiences
“We suffer verbal aggression on a daily basis. In a period of 24 hours, I’d say we endure about two or three incidents of verbal aggression. Staff have been spat at and suffer the use of inappropriate language.”
“A young woman was in the department shouting, screaming and throwing her arms around because she wasn’t getting her own way. We couldn’t treat her because if we did we would have been physically assaulted.”
“A man gave consent to being cannulated in resuscitation but then changed his mind. He kicked me in the stomach. That case went through the police and courts but they pleaded guilty so I didn’t have to go to court to give evidence.”
“A man came in intoxicated to A&E. He was alert. He realised paramedics had cut his jacket to save his life.
He squared up to me, really close to my face, screaming, shouting and swearing. I remained calm and explained that the paramedics had to do that to save his life.
Police were in the department at the time dealing with another patient.
I said to the man ‘Do not step any closer to me’. I just walked away.
“When a patient is like that all they see is red, that’s not an excuse for their behaviour. They just take it out on the first person that’s in front of them.”
“One man had a vape and security took it off him. He kept asking for it back and kept touching me and calling me babe. I told him to stop touching me and stop calling me babe. A male doctor witnessed his behaviour and told him to stop or he would be thrown out of the department.”
Dr Farrow said: “In all of these situations our clinical teams have to remain calm and try to resolve the situation as we have to keep a safe environment.
“Dealing with abusive and inappropriate behaviour takes time away from those who really need us. Someone may be waiting for something like paracetamol which would make a huge difference to them while they wait but if we need to deal with a incidents like this then they could be waiting for another 20 to 30 minutes.”
Dr Gill Findley, executive chief nurse, added: “Almost a quarter of trust staff reported experiencing harassment, bullying or harassment from patients or families in last year’s staff survey, with staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds being almost 20% more likely to experience it.
“As a trust it’s important we do as much as we can to protect our staff while at work. We encourage our colleagues to report these incidents and we will take appropriate action when necessary, and provide colleagues with support from occupational health and other colleagues.
“Where behaviour is repeatedly unacceptable, we do have policies in place to reduce health risks to employees exposed to incidents of violence or aggression and the use of red and yellow cards that can be used if a patients or visitors behaviour is deemed unacceptable.
“Yellow cards are issued in the form of a formal warning or behaviour contract to de-escalate the situation. If there is no improvement in behaviour, the red card procedure can be initiated which will warn a patient that treatment may be withheld.”
The Human campaign includes messages across trust sites and online featuring close up images of local staff, to remind patients, families and the community to treat health care professionals with kindness and respect.
