Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust: More than 800 attacks on staff in a year

An NHS trust recorded more than 800 physical assaults against its staff last year.

Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust said the physical assaults against staff were reported, along with another 925 non-physical assaults.

A nurse at another Berkshire trust said she was attacked by a patient who tried to stab her. She was not badly injured but underwent counselling.

The government said it was trying to reduce assaults on NHS staff.

A member of staff at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust reported they were "severely assaulted", had her T-shirt "fully ripped off", bra torn and a "large amount of hair pulled out from the root" during one attack.

It was documented in a report, external published in advance of a trust board meeting on Tuesday.

Some of her colleagues were so badly assaulted they went off sick, with some saying they felt guilty for leaving their colleagues short-staffed.

"Other staff have shared that they feel it's all part of the job and the conditions have been normalised to some extent and 'expect' it", the papers state.

A spokesperson from Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust said: "Any type of violence towards our staff is completely unacceptable and it is appalling that staff have to experience this whilst caring for patients.

"It is a key priority for us to take the appropriate actions to make sure we offer a safe and secure environment for all staff, safeguarding them against all types of aggression and abuse."

A nurse who worked for the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust, who did not want to be named, told BBC Radio Berkshire about an incident while she was working at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading during the Covid pandemic.

As she recorded her observations of a patient on a staff computer, she felt a sharp pain in her back.

"I must have let out a scream because a lot of my colleagues came running down from outside of the ward to see what was happening," she said.

"I just remember saying something like 'oh my god, what are you doing?' Even now I'm still emotional [talking about it].

"The patient continued to lash out on the ward and they got security. The management came up and I was checked out.

"Thank God I changed my uniform from thin scrubs to one with a double pleat at the back. That is what saved me from having further injury."

Ange Forster, the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust's director of nursing for urgent care, said the attacks made her feel "very sad".

"You never come to work anticipating that you will be unsafe," she added.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are working closely with NHS England as they take action to prevent and reduce violence against staff, including through body-worn camera trials and a national violence prevention hub to ensure NHS staff can work in a safe environment."

Amendment 16 May 2024: A previous version of the story incorrectly said the assault figures came from the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust

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