The pressures facing our health and social care service and its dedicated staff are, sadly, all too real and familiar.
For example, around 700,000 people are on a waiting list for either inpatient, outpatient or diagnostic elective care. It’s a staggering number in the context of our population of approximately 1.9 million, even taking into account the fact that some patients will feature on multiple lists and more than once.
Dig deeper into the figures and the scale of the problem only looms larger. Around 200,000 people have been waiting for more than a year for a first outpatient appointment is but one alarming statistic. Elsewhere there are well documented problems with sourcing domiciliary care, overwhelmed mental health services, the difficulty with speaking to a GP - let alone getting an appointment - and the related challenges faced by crowded hospital emergency departments.
It should go without saying that whenever we as members of the public interact with health and social care services, we should do so with respect and empathy for those devoted staff whose only priority is to help us in our moment of need, vulnerability or crisis.
“Health and social care staff work in environments that are already highly pressured - not least because they can involve making life and death decisions - and it is deplorable that anyone would act in such a way that makes those jobs more difficult
It is therefore profoundly troubling that healthcare staff are being verbally or physically attacked on a daily basis, and that the number of assaults remains stubbornly high. Indeed, there were more attacks last year - 10,873 - than in any of the previous four years, according to Department of Health statistics. Between 2018/19 and 2022/23 the department recorded a total of 51,595 incidents where staff were subjected to physical abuse.
To highlight the issue, the department, health trusts and trade unions have produced a framework to help tackle the epidemic of violence and aggression. Called It’s Not Part of the Job, it sets out the health and social care service’s commitment to preventing, reducing and managing these assaults.
Peter May, the department’s permanent secretary, has rightly described the figures as appalling: “No-one should have to face the threat of aggression or violence in the course of their job, least of all staff who dedicate their lives to protecting and caring for patients.”
Health and social care staff work in environments that are already highly pressured - not least because they can involve making life and death decisions - and it is deplorable that anyone would act in such a way that makes those jobs more difficult.
Testimony from doctors, nurses and others on the receiving end of the abuse shows how these episodes can cause mental and physical harm, which ultimately leads to time off work and less time with patients.
Patients may feel frustrated at times, but there can never be any excuse for directing violence at healthcare workers.
