Fears hospital staff abuse may be underreported

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust staff have been subject to abuse

Violent attacks against staff in a hospital trust may be going unreported, officials fear.

A council meeting heard that levels of verbal abuse aimed at staff from North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust had dropped substantially over the last year.

But trust official Rebecca Denton-Smith said that this may be due to the fact there is “more acceptance from staff”.

She said her team was working to better empower staff to report such incidents.

Between April to December 2023, there were 144 incidents of “verbal abuse or disruption” reported by staff.

This is compared with 219 in 2022, Ms Denton-Smith told a meeting of the Hartlepool Borough Council audit and governance committee.

She said the numbers could reflect “more acceptance from staff expecting that [abuse]", but added that the trust had increased security at peak times when incidents usually occur, and this had had a “positive impact”.

Aggressive behaviour

The number of reported cases of “unintentional” physical abuse, assault and violence had also decreased from 105 to 58 between 2022 and 2023.

But other areas saw a rise in numbers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

For example, incidents involving the need for use of control and restraint with a patient rose from 21 to 78, whereas numbers of disruptive, aggressive behaviour went from 42 to 71.

Numbers of incidents involving “malicious” physical abuse, assault or violence also rose from seven to 25.

Hartlepool Borough Council official Jonathan Brash said violence incidents could be “quite significantly up” if an underreporting of verbal abuse is taken into account.

He added: “It’s extremely concerning that’s what NHS staff are going through.”