Latest news with #NHSstaff
Telegraph
12-08-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Long waits behind surge in attacks on A&E nurses
Long waits in NHS departments are behind a surge in violent attacks on A&E nurses, new figures reveal. The Royal College of Nursing said nurses are being punched and spat at on wards. One even had gun pointed at them. Wes Streeting said he was 'appalled' by the findings and promised offenders would feel the 'full force of the law.' Without action to tackle long waits, corridor care and 'chronic' staffing problems, then rates of violence will continue to rise, the union warned. Figures from NHS hospitals with accident and emergency departments, which the RCN obtained under freedom of information laws, revealed there were 4054 cases of physical violence against A&E staff recorded in 2024, up from 2093 in 2019. One senior A&E nurse based in east London said she has seen colleagues punched and kicked and described how a colleague had a gun pointed at them. She herself had been spat at by a patient and threatened with an acid attack. A senior charge nurse from the East Midlands, Rachelle McCarthy, said 'even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait'. 'You can only imagine the behaviour of those who are already prone to violence,' she added. Ms McCarthy also told the union she was punched 'square in the face' by a 'drunk, six foot two bloke'. Another nurse said: 'It's not going to help with our retention and recruitment if you think you're going to be clobbered every shift.' Sarah Tappy, a senior sister in an A&E in east London, was knocked unconscious after being punched in the head by a patient. 'The violence is awful,' she said. 'And it's just constant. Nurses, doctors, receptionists - none of us feels safe.' RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: 'Nursing staff not only go to work underpaid and undervalued but now face a rising tide of violence. 'It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning. 'Measures to keep staff safe day-to-day are crucial, but the stark reality is that unless the Government does something about lengthy waits, corridor care and understaffed nursing teams, more nursing staff will become victims of this utterly abhorrent behaviour. 'Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.' The Health Secretary said: 'I am appalled by these findings. Nurses dedicate their lives to helping others and deserve to go about their jobs free from violence or intimidation. 'Anyone who violates this core principle will feel the full force of the law. 'I met with the Royal College of Nursing recently to reaffirm our commitment to standing with frontline workers, working together to stop violence against NHS staff and improving their working conditions. 'Just yesterday I announced a new graduate guarantee to get more nurses into our NHS, and I have also committed to shining a light on the extent to which corridor care plagues our NHS, as the first step to eradicating it. 'We are strengthening vital support for victims, including security training and emotional support for staff affected by violence, so no NHS worker has to suffer in silence.'
The Independent
11-08-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Nurses facing ‘abhorrent' violence levels while in A&E
Nurses are facing 'abhorrent' levels of violence in A&E departments including being punched, spat at and even having a gun pointed at one of them. And long waits in A&E are also leading to anger among patients who are not prone to violence, the nursing union said. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said more must be done to protect NHS staff. Without action to tackle long waits, corridor care and 'chronic' staffing problems, then rates of violence will continue to rise, the RCN warned. It comes after it found rising rates of violence towards staff after sending freedom of information (FOI) requests to NHS hospitals with accident and emergency departments. Figures from 89 hospital trusts, out of a possible 129, revealed there were 4,054 cases of physical violence against A&E staff recorded in 2024, up from 2,093 in 2019, the RCN said. One senior A&E nurse based in east London told the RCN she has seen colleagues punched and kicked and described how a colleague had a gun pointed at them. She herself had been spat at by a patient and threatened with an acid attack. A senior charge nurse from the East Midlands, Rachelle McCarthy, told the RCN that 'even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait'. 'You can only imagine the behaviour of those who are already prone to violence,' she added. Ms McCarthy also told the union she was punched 'square in the face' by a 'drunk, six foot two bloke'. Another nurse said: 'It's not going to help with our retention and recruitment if you think you're going to be clobbered every shift.' Sarah Tappy, a senior sister in an A&E in east London, was knocked unconscious after being punched in the head by a patient. 'The violence is awful,' she said. 'And it's just constant. Nurses, doctors, receptionists – none of us feels safe.' RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: 'Nursing staff not only go to work underpaid and undervalued but now face a rising tide of violence. 'It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning. 'Measures to keep staff safe day-to-day are crucial, but the stark reality is that unless the Government does something about lengthy waits, corridor care and understaffed nursing teams, more nursing staff will become victims of this utterly abhorrent behaviour. 'Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.' Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'I am appalled by these findings. 'Nurses dedicate their lives to helping others and deserve to go about their jobs free from violence or intimidation. 'Anyone who violates this core principle will feel the full force of the law. 'I met with the Royal College of Nursing recently to reaffirm our commitment to standing with frontline workers, working together to stop violence against NHS staff and improving their working conditions. 'Just yesterday I announced a new graduate guarantee to get more nurses into our NHS, and I have also committed to shining a light on the extent to which corridor care plagues our NHS, as the first step to eradicating it. 'We are strengthening vital support for victims, including security training and emotional support for staff affected by violence, so no NHS worker has to suffer in silence.' The Liberal Democrats have called for A&E staff to be given access to a panic button which would give them a 'direct line' to the police. The party's health spokesperson Helen Morgan said: 'Violence against hospital staff is utterly abhorrent and those committing it should feel the full force of the law. Those working in hospitals often do so under incredibly difficult conditions to look after us when we are most in need. 'The Conservatives' shameful neglect left our hospitals understaffed and patients left at risk. If this Labour Government thinks it can turn that around without addressing this shocking violence, they are badly mistaken. 'The Government must urgently ensure all A&E units have a direct line to their nearest police station through a panic button – to protect patients and staff and ensure these violent criminals are swiftly arrested.'
Sky News
03-07-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Sir Keir Starmer unveils 10-year plan for the NHS and declares: 'The future already looks better'
Sir Keir Starmer has declared that "the future already looks better for the NHS" as he unveiled the government's 10-year plan for the health service. Speaking at the Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health Centre in east London, surrounded by NHS staff, the prime minister explained that his government will fix the health service by moving care into the community, digitising the NHS, and focusing on sickness prevention. The aim is to shift care away from under-pressure medical facilities and closer to people's homes, while taking measures to prevent people needing treatment in the first place. Core elements of his plan include a hugely enhanced NHS app to give patients more control over their care and access to more data, new neighbourhood health centres open six days a week and at least 12 hours a day, and new laws on food and alcohol to prevent ill health. Sir Keir said before the general election a year ago there were record waiting lists for treatment, patient satisfaction was at the lowest level ever, and thousands have been forced to wait more than six hours in A&E, despite the efforts of NHS staff. He argued that the government had already done much to start turning things around, pointing to new NHS staff recruited in mental health and general practice, 170 diagnostic centres now open, new surgical hubs, mental health units, ambulance sites, and "record investment right across the system". But he added: "I'm not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now - we have a lot more work to do, and we will do it. "Because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for the NHS." 5:12 Starmer praises Reeves after tearful PMQs The prime minister was accompanied by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who was making her first public appearance since she was seen crying during Prime Minister's Questions. He would not say why she had been upset, telling journalists that it was a "personal matter", and praised her work as chancellor, saying the investment the government is making in the NHS is "all down to the foundation we laid this year, all down to the path of renewal that we chose, the decisions made by the chancellor, by Rachel Reeves". 1:03 Ms Reeves also spoke at the event, saying: "I want to be clear, we are spending money on taxpayers' priorities, but that wouldn't have been possible without the measures that we took in the budget last year. "We fixed the foundations and we've put our economy back on a strong footing." The 10-year plan set out a series of measures to move the NHS from analogue systems to new digital ones, move from treatment to prevention, and deliver more healthcare in the community, with the aim of ending the "status quo of hospital by default". There will be new neighbourhood health to give people access to a full range of services, leaving hospitals to focus on the sickest, and advice on debt, employment, stopping smoking, and obesity will also be available. 3:13 Core elements of the plan include: Making the NHS app "a full front door to the entire NHS" by 2028 to help patients access the full range of services available; A single patient record and personalised information to stop patients having to repeat details of their health issue; An expansion of wearable technology to make it the "standard in preventative, chronic and post-acute NHS treatment by 2035"; 85 new mental health emergency departments so people do not end up in A&E New restrictions on the junk food advertising targeted at children, a ban on the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16-year-olds, reforms to the soft drinks industry levy, and a new "mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages"; Forcing dentists to work for the NHS for at least three years if they have been trained at taxpayers' expense; An end to the "disgraceful spectacle of corridor care" and ensuring 95% of people wait no longer than 18 weeks for routine care; Priority to be given to UK medical graduates and an ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035. Plan 'still sketchy on detail' The plan has been cautiously welcomed by trade unions and the broader health industry, but there has been criticism that the plan lacks detail. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King's Fund, said: "There are more than 150 pages of a vision of how things could be different in the NHS by 2035, but nowhere near enough detail about how it will be implemented." Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "Nursing staff are crying out for change and we stand ready to get behind this plan. "Modernising services, bringing care closer to home and helping people to lead healthier lives couldn't be more necessary... "Nursing staff are identified today as the expert leaders to deliver a neighbourhood health service and that should be truly empowering. As the professionals delivering the vast majority of care, we know what keeps patients safe and well." The Conservative shadow health secretary said the government's "long-term goals are right", but warned that the plans is "still sketchy on some of the details of delivery". Edward Argar told the Commons: "It is ambitious, I believe his long-term goals are right and that the reforms he sets out today build on the reforms we set out and carried out. The desire to shift care from hospital to community, to better use technology and to move to prevention are not new at all, but they remain vital."
Times
30-06-2025
- Health
- Times
UK doctors to get priority for jobs to make NHS ‘self-sufficient'
British doctors will be given priority for NHS jobs under plans to make the health service 'self-sufficient' in staff. A ten-year plan, due to be published this week, will commit to hiring no more than one in ten NHS recruits from overseas, promising reform to a system in which two thirds of new doctors come from abroad. Doctors will also be instructed to prioritise returning to work as a key goal of treatment, as ministers seek to curb a rising benefits bill. Work coaches will be stationed in GP surgeries and local NHS chiefs will be given targets to help the sick return to work. Sir Keir Starmer will set out a plan designed to get the NHS back on track and make the best use of a £30 billion budget boost in the spending review. The Times has seen an internal government briefing on the plan, which is yet to be finalised as wrangling continues over key questions such as whether to introduce a minimum unit pricing for alcohol and restrict advertising. At the heart of the plan is an attempt to create a 'neighbourhood health service' through beefed-up local care teams, alongside a 'choice charter' that promises patients greater say over where and how they are treated. As doctors and nurses again consider strike action over pay, the NHS has been described as a 'bad employer' that leaves staff unhappy and demoralised. The plan promises to 'prioritise UK medical graduates' for junior doctor posts to reduce the risk of British-trained doctors losing out on consultant-track jobs. A recent increase in medical school numbers has begun to reverse Britain's long-running failure to train enough doctors, but career opportunities in the NHS have not kept up. There are expected to be about five applicants for every specialist training place this year as expansion of medical jobs has been constrained to control costs. • Wes Streeting: Striking junior doctors have lost public's support The plan criticises an expansion of training 'without a commensurate expansion in postgraduate training places, compounded by the 2020 decision to open competition for postgraduate medical training to international trainees on equal terms'. Saying this is an 'unacceptable way to treat doctors', the plan pledges to prioritise 'UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period for foundation and specialty training' in order to avoid British doctors being shut out of consultant-track jobs. It comes as ministers end the overseas recruitment of care workers and tighten immigration rules to make all jobs below degree level ineligible for skilled worker visas. Hospitals and other clinics will be given 'new duties' to employ staff from their local areas, in an effort to use the NHS budget to tackle poverty and boost employment around the country. However, ministers are preparing to reconsider previous promises to increase doctor and nurse numbers. The plan criticises 'an inexorable rise in staff numbers based only on demographic changes and in the absence of any reforms to the model of care'. This is expected to put more emphasis on training GPs rather than hospital doctors. Promising 'a more realistic' workforce strategy later this year, the plan commits the NHS to 'a self-sufficient workforce by 2035', saying that less than 10 per cent of new recruits should be from overseas. This is down from about a quarter currently, rising to two thirds of new doctors who qualified abroad in 2022-23. Labour MPs criticised Jeremy Hunt when the Conservative health secretary set out the 'self-sufficiency' aim in 2016. Diane Abbott, then the shadow health secretary, called it 'nonsense' and an attack on foreign-born NHS staff. However, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, acknowledged it was 'completely bonkers' for taxpayers to fund training for doctors who cannot get jobs. He has told staff he wants to 'prioritise UK-trained students for jobs in the NHS' and 'make sure that if you go through your medical training here in the UK, that you're able to work in the UK'. • Improved bid intensifies battle for NHS landlord Assura The British Medical Association has attacked the 'scandal' of British-trained doctors facing unemployment and a spokesman said ministers must 'implement this much-needed reform at pace'. He said: 'Doctors are facing severe underemployment as we speak, and waiting until 2035 to give them a fair shot at a training place will lead to more leaving the profession in the meantime. By next year we need to have a system that prioritises UK grads while making sure those international colleagues already here don't lose out.' Mark Dayan, of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: 'For this plan to work there will need to be better alignment between NHS workforce planning and funding that we've seen in much of NHS history. We also need to get better at retention. Otherwise, the risk is filling a leaky bucket with more UK-trained staff who then drop out after a few years.' Talks about performance-related pay for frontline staff have also begun, although unions remain sceptical. In an attempt to move care out of hospital, the plan will promise 'neighbourhood health centres in every community', where GP-led teams offer checks and appointments previously available only in specialist centres. Routine follow-up appointments will be scrapped and far more outpatient appointments will be held in local clinics. The most frail patients will be identified for preventative care by specialist teams aiming to keep them out of hospital. At the same time, hospitals are promised more autonomy. All are due to become self-governing foundation trusts and some will take over healthcare entirely in some areas, as ministers pledge to stop meddling. An expansion of hospital league tables 'ranking providers against key quality indicators' is also planned. Senior NHS bosses are sceptical about tensions between these goals and have asked where the money for more local clinics will come from when infrastructure spending is held flat.
The Independent
12-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
NHS waiting list for planned treatment falls to lowest level in two years
The NHS waiting list for planned hospital treatment has fallen to its lowest level for two years, figures show. An estimated 7.39 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of April, relating to 6.23 million patients – down from 7.42 million treatments and 6.25 million patients at the end of March. These are the lowest figures since March 2023 for treatments and April 2023 for patients. The news comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave the NHS a cash injection worth an extra £29 billion per year. Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'We are putting the NHS on the road to recovery after years of soaring waiting times, by providing record investment and fundamental NHS reform. 'Thanks to our interventions and the hard work of NHS staff, the overall waiting list has now fallen in April for the first time in 17 years – dropping by almost a quarter of a million since we took office. 'This is just the start. We've delivered millions of extra appointments since July, we are pushing on with our mission to get the NHS working for patients once again as we deliver our Plan for Change.' Within the new NHS figures, the number of longer waits has grown. Some 1,361 patients in England had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of April, up from 1,164 in March. There were 9,258 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment, up from 7,381 the previous month. Overall, 190,068 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment, up from 180,242 at the end of March. The figure had previously fallen for 10 months in a row. NHS England said that, overall, the average time patients had been waiting for planned treatment fell to the lowest level since July 2022 – 13.3 weeks – despite services facing greater demand. Meghana Pandit, NHS England's co-national medical director, said NHS staff were working to 'turn the tide for patients waiting for care'. She said while huge pressure on services remains, 'we are starting to see a real difference across our services – this is just the start of the work we're doing to reform care and deliver improvements for patient'. The data also showed fewer people are getting a diagnosis of cancer or having it ruled out within four weeks. A total of 76.7% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in April, down from 78.9% in March and 80.2% in February. The Government and NHS England had set a target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 80%. The proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in April from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 69.9%, down from 71.4% in March. GPs in England made 264,880 urgent cancer referrals in April, down from 272,165 in March but up year-on-year from 260,516 in April 2024. Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said: 'This new data shows that the hard work of NHS leaders and their teams is paying off, with waiting lists falling to their lowest level in two years and A&E performance increasing despite incredibly high demand. 'But our members know there is still a long way to go to further drive down waiting lists and hit the 18-week target.' He said the money pledged by the Chancellor was welcome 'but there are fears that this uplift will not be enough to achieve all the Government's manifesto pledges, including hitting the stretching 92% elective waiting time target by March 2029. 'Many of our members have warned they will not hit the interim target, with only one in two confident they will achieve the 65% elective care interim target by March 2026. 'The solution lies in the radical redesign of pathways, in particular outpatient services, which many of our members are already working towards. 'We look forward to working with them to spread best practice across the country.'
