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Sky News
5 days ago
- Health
- Sky News
Nurses punched, spat at and threatened with weapons over A&E wait times
Nurses are being punched, spat at and threatened with weapons by patients who are not prone to violence but are becoming angry after long waits in A&E. Figures obtained by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) from 89 hospital trusts, out of a possible 129, show cases of physical violence against A&E staff have doubled - from 2,093 in 2019 to 4,054 in 2024. One senior A&E nurse based in east London told the RCN she had been spat at by a patient and threatened with an acid attack. She also said she had seen colleagues punched and kicked - and described how one had a gun pointed at them. "Even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait," Rachelle McCarthy, a senior charge nurse from the East Midlands, told the RCN. "You can only imagine the behaviour of those who are already prone to violence," she said. She added she was punched "square in the face" by a "drunk, six foot two bloke". Sarah Tappy, a senior sister in an A&E in east London who was knocked unconscious after being punched in the head by a patient, said: "The violence is awful. And it's just constant. Nurses, doctors, receptionists - none of us feels safe." 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." The RCN has called for action to protect NHS staff, which it said "face a rising tide of violence". "It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning," warned RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger. She said the government's plans to reform the NHS would "fail" if the issue was left unaddressed. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was "appalled" by the findings. "Nurses dedicate their lives to helping others and deserve to go about their jobs free from violence or intimidation," he said. He said the government was committed to ending the violence by "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," he added. 3:03 The Liberal Democrats have called for A&E staff to be given access to a panic button, giving 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."
ITV News
5 days ago
- Health
- ITV News
Nurses face 'abhorrent' levels of violence as A&E attacks double in five years
Nurses are facing 'abhorrent' levels of violence as attacks in A&E wards have almost doubled in the last five years, new figures reveal. Staff have been punched, spat at and even had a gun pointed at one of them in A&E departments. Long waits in A&E are also leading to anger among patients who are not prone to violence, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said as it called for more to be done to protect NHS staff. The nursing union submitted Freedom of information (FOI) requests to NHS hospitals with accident and emergency departments and found rates of violence towards staff had almost doubled in the last five years. 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. Without action to tackle long waits, corridor care and 'chronic' staffing problems, the rates of violence will continue to rise, the RCN warned. 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.' 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: '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.' Health 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.'
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
NHS nurses report 'aborrent' A&E violence - spitting, punches and gun threats
Violent incidents against NHS medics took place every hour on average last year as the Royal College of Nursing blames A&E waits which have got worse in the last decade Nurses are facing "abhorrent" violence in A&Es including being punched, spat at and even having a gun pointed at one of them. Violent incidents against nurses are now taking place every hour on average as new data shows cases have doubled in England since 2019. The Royal College of Nursing says the worrying rise is linked to longer patient waits in overstretched A&Es and the 'corridor care' they have to provide. One senior A+E nurse based in east London told the nurses' union of seeing colleagues punched, kicked while one even had a gun pointed at them. She has herself been spat at by a patient and threatened with an acid attack and developed depression and anxiety. It comes after a man claims 'I died for seven minutes in hospital - here's exactly what I saw on the other side'. READ MORE: Labour reveals major NHS plan to FINALLY cut A&E and ambulance wait times The nurse said she has since had to take a break from the profession to recover. She added: 'The violence I saw made me become more fearful outside of work. I saw how volatile people can be.' Rachelle McCarthy, a senior charge nurse in the East Midlands, was punched 'square in the face' by a 'drunk, six foot two bloke'. She 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.' Sarah Tappy, a senior sister in an A+E in East London, was in a waiting room when a patient punched her in the head knocking her unconscious. She later developed anxiety and PTSD as a result of the incident. She said: 'The violence is awful. And it's just constant. Nurses, doctors, receptionists – none of us feel safe.' The RCN sent Freedom of Information requests to 129 hospital trusts and 89 replied with data on violent attacks. There were 4,054 cases of physical violence against A&E staff recorded in 2024, up from 2,093 in 2019. Another senior A+E nurse in the South West of England told of multiple occasions where she had witnessed violence in her ward including seeing a patient 'pinning a nurse up against a wall' and another punching a member of staff 'in the groin and stomach'. She said: 'It's not going to help with our retention and recruitment if you think you're going to be clobbered every shift.' 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."
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Mental health patients face ‘torture' of waiting days in A&E for a bed
Patients are suffering the 'torture' of waiting up to three days in A&E in 'utterly degrading' conditions for a bed in mental health wards, nurses have claimed. The number of mental health patients being kept in A&E departments for at least 12 hours has risen five-fold since before the pandemic, according to new figures obtained under freedom of information laws from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Distressed patients were often guarded by security instead of being cared for by healthcare professionals, while some patients attempted suicide on hospital grounds. Others eventually left the hospital without receiving treatment – running the risk of causing harm to themselves and the public. Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said it was 'a scandal in plain sight'. She also used her address at the union's annual conference to criticise Sir Keir Starmer's immigration plans, and paved the way for a summer of NHS strikes over pay. In a report released to coincide with the conference in Liverpool this week, nurses described waiting times for mental health beds as 'prolonged and degrading'. They told how brightly lit and noisy emergency departments were 'close to torture' for mental health patients, whose conditions often worsened the longer they waited. Rachelle McCarthy, senior charge nurse at Nottingham University Hospital, said: 'It is not uncommon for patients with severe mental ill health to wait three days. 'Many become distressed and I totally understand why. I think if I was sat in an A&E department for three days waiting for a bed, I would be distressed too.' Another senior nurse from the south-west of England said: 'Some of them are in severe crisis. They want to leave. They want to self-harm. They are massively distressed and struggling.' She said the hospital had been forced to deploy a team of senior nurses, security staff and the fire service to stop waiting patients attempting suicide on hospital grounds on more than one occasion. At one emergency department in the South East, a mental health patient was monitored for 24 hours by a security guard instead of receiving treatment. His brother told the RCN: 'My brother needed care from a mental health professional, not to be guarded like he was a threat.' Nearly 5,300 mental health patients waited at least 12 hours after they had been admitted to A&E departments in England last year – up from about 1,000 in 2019. This will be just the tip of the iceberg as only one in four of England's 145 hospitals with emergency departments released figures under the Freedom of Information Act to the RCN. At some hospitals, no mental health patients had experienced 12-hour waits in 2019 but, by last year, there was at least one waiting all day in A&E every day of the year. At the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the number of mental health patients waiting more than 12 hours for admission surged from zero in 2019 to 463 in 2024. The average rise across all hospitals of mental health patients waiting more than 12 hours was 383 per cent. Analysis by the union also found the number of hospital beds for mental health patients has dropped by nearly a fifth in the last decade, meaning there are now 3,699 fewer in-patient spaces, and the number of mental health nurses for every 10,000 mental health patients in England has halved. Prof Ranger told the RCN annual congress: 'The people who wait the longest are the most severely mentally ill. If parity of esteem between mental and physical health is to mean anything, then these utterly degrading waits must end.' She called for 'urgent and sustained investment in community mental health nursing to ease the overwhelming pressures on emergency departments'. Prof Ranger also slammed the Prime Minister's plans to reduce immigration as 'pandering and scapegoating' and said the UK was 'so reliant on overseas colleagues'. On the possibility of striking over pay, she added that nurses in England wanted to 'fight for more'. 'I'm not here today to tell you that we're going on strike, but I'm not here today to tell you that we are not going on strike,' she told 3,000 delegates. 'That's not my call. You need to decide how you feel. We will plan together and get what's best for nursing and what it needs.' Referring to the figures, Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and campaigns at the charity Mind, said: 'Long wait times in A&E can be difficult for everyone. But for the people attending A&E in mental health crisis – and more than 700 do every day – the impacts can be significant. 'When people who may have attempted suicide, self-harmed, or experienced psychosis, they need timely and urgent help. They are being let down by a system that is overwhelmed and depleted.' Alexa Knight, England's director at the Mental Health Foundation, also called for better community support for mental health patients, adding: 'The frequency of people attending A&E experiencing a mental health crisis clearly shows that not enough people are receiving mental health support at the best time – early in their journey.' It comes as the patient safety watchdog said that mental health hospitals were not always acting on recommendations made to improve the safety of patients. The Health Services Safety Investigations Body said this led to 'missed opportunities to learn, improve and prevent harm to patients and NHS staff'. A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'People with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they deserve, and we know that many NHS staff feel burnt out and demoralised, having been overworked for years. 'That's why this Government is investing an extra £680 million in mental health services this year, to help recruit 8,500 more mental health workers, and put mental health support in every school. 'We have also launched one of the world's first 24/7 mental health crisis support services via NHS 111 and announced a £26 million investment in new crisis centres, to ensure patients can get timely support from a trained mental health professional.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Daily Mirror
12-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'I spent 24 hours on a bean bag - A&E has become torture for those in crisis'
The number of mental health patients being kept in A&E departments for at least 12 hours has risen five-fold since before the pandemic, with one woman describing her ordeal on a beanbag Patients are suffering the 'torture' of waiting up to three days in A&E in 'utterly degrading' conditions for a mental health bed, nurses have warned. The number of mental health patients being kept in A&E departments for at least 12 hours has risen five-fold since before the pandemic, according to new figures obtained under freedom of information laws by the Royal College of Nursing. Distressed patients were often guarded by security instead of being cared for by healthcare professionals, while some patients attempted suicide on hospital grounds and others eventually walked out untreated - risking harm to themselves and the public. In a report released by the RCN at its annual conference in Liverpool this week, nurses described waiting times for mental health beds for patients needing admission to hospital as 'prolonged and degrading'. They told how brightly lit and noisy emergency departments were 'close to torture' for mental health patients, whose conditions often worsened the longer they waited. Rachelle McCarthy, senior charge nurse at Nottingham University Hospital, said: 'It is not uncommon for patients with severe mental ill health to wait three days. Many become distressed and I totally understand why. I think if I was sat in an A&E department for three days waiting for a bed, I would be distressed too.' Another senior nurse from the South West of England said: 'Some of them are in severe crisis. They want to leave. They want to self-harm. They are massively distressed and struggling.' She said on more than one occasion the hospital had been forced to deploy a team of senior nurses, security staff and the fire service to stop waiting patients attempting suicide in hospital grounds. At one emergency department in the South East, a mental health patient was monitored for 24 hours by a security guard instead of receiving treatment. His horrified brother told the RCN: 'My brother needed care from a mental health professional, not to be guarded like he was a threat.' Nearly 5,300 mental health patients waited at least 12 hours after a decision had been made to admit them at A&E departments in England last year - up from around 1,000 in 2019. But this will be just the tip of the iceberg as only one in four of 145 English hospitals with emergency departments released figures under the Freedom of Information Act to the RCN. At some hospitals, no mental health patients had experienced 12-hour waits in 2019 but, by last year, there was at least one waiting all day in A&E every day of the year. At Manchester Royal Infirmary, the number of mental health patients waiting more than 12 hours for admission surged from zero in 2019 to 463 in 2024. The average rise across all hospitals was 383 per cent. Analysis by the union also found the number of mental health hospital beds has dropped by nearly a fifth in the last decade, meaning there are now 3,699 fewer in-patient spaces, and the number of mental health nurses per every 10,000 mental health patients in England has halved. RCN leader Professor Nicola Ranger described the situation as 'a scandal in plain sight'. She told the RCN annual congress: "The people who wait the longest are the most severely mentally ill. If parity of esteem between mental and physical health is to mean anything, then these utterly degrading waits must end.' She called for 'urgent and sustained investment in community mental health nursing to ease the overwhelming pressures on emergency departments'. Commenting on the figures, Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and campaigns at the charity Mind, said: 'Long wait times in A&E can be difficult for everyone. But for the people attending A&E in mental health crisis – and more than 700 do every day – the impacts can be significant. 'When people who may have attempted suicide, self-harmed, or experienced psychosis, they need timely and urgent help. They are being let down by a system that is overwhelmed and depleted.' Alexa Knight, director of England at the Mental Health Foundation, also called for better community support for mental health patients, adding: 'The frequency of people attending A&E experiencing a mental health crisis clearly shows that not enough people are receiving mental health support at the best time – early in their journey.' The Department for Health and Social Care has been approached for comment. 'I lay on a beanbag in A&E for 24 hours' Emma Powell, 33, lives with schizoaffective disorder and needed hospitalisation when she experienced psychosis in 2022. Seriously unwell, she went to A&E but staff could not find her a space in a mental health unit - even though her condition was so serious she needed to be monitored 1:1 by a nurse. An A&E nurse found her a beanbag and she curled up on it in the corridor while she waited for more than 24 hours. She said: "I was literally lying on the floor curled up with people walking past me, as I was so exhausted and it was the closest I could get to comfort. To be in a small space surrounded by noise with people rushing around and people in pain, exacerbated my distress.' During another crisis last year, Emma was forced to stay on a trolley in an A&E side room for six nights while waiting for a mental health bed. 'Being in A&E is never going to be a pleasant experience, but it's particularly terrifying when you can't control things happening in your mind and you're distressed and in a strange space that isn't designed for those kinds of feelings.' Emma said the A&E staff recognised that the conditions were 'awful'. 'They were just rushed off their feet, but always caring and desperate to be able to do something more,' she added.
