Hugo (not his real name), an advanced clinical practitioner, was on the night shift in A&E at Great Western hospital, Swindon, when a drunk patient started swearing aggressively at a nurse. \u201cWhen I asked if I could help, he told me, \u2018Fuck off you gay cunt.\u2019 When I asked him not to speak to me like that and to return to his seat in the waiting room, he just walked up the corridor swearing and repeatedly shouting \u2018gaydar\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hugo said he was initially more annoyed than scared, even when the patient grabbed a crutch and started swinging it about. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t time to be frightened,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re just trying to protect your colleagues and the patients.\u201d He called security and in the end the police had to arrest the patient. He said although he had experienced aggressive and violent behaviour \u2013 over the course of his career, he has been kicked, spat at, pushed and intimidated \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s still upsetting and psychologically exhausting to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now GWH hopes a renewed campaign to tackle violence and abuse will help staff such as Hugo realise that violence, abuse and aggression do not need to be part of the job. GWH first introduced a strategy to combat abuse in 2016. But executives decided the hospital needed to revive it after 2024 NHS staff survey<\/a> results showed too few workers said they would report violent or abusive incidents. While a quarter of staff said they had experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from patients and the public, barely half said they would report it. And only two-thirds said they would report violence.<\/p>\n As part of the Never OK campaign<\/a> NHS staff appear in a video<\/a> to talk of the abuse they have experienced while doing their jobs: from the nurse who was scared to return to work after a patient left her with bruising; to the doctor who was spat on by the wife of a patient; to the healthcare support worker who was strangled while trying to take a patient outside for fresh air; and the healthcare assistant who was punched in the face.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Darren Pearson, the deputy divisional director of nursing and chair of the Never OK working group, said: \u201cWe come to work to do our jobs and look after people, and we do that well. Nobody should have to experience or tolerate these behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n