Kent and Sussex GP staff facing abuse on a daily basis, surgery says

NHS Kent and Medway has provided funding for surgeries to boost security measures

The NHS in Kent and Medway has funded £600,000 worth of CCTV, security lighting and panic buttons in GP practices to protect staff from abusive patients, BBC South East has been told.

NHS Kent and Medway says it has supported 79 practices with additional security equipment since 2022.

One practice manager said staff faced abuse on a "daily basis".

In Kent and Sussex 340 patients have been removed from their GP practices' lists because of their behaviour.

Patients who are abusive can face sanctions, including being placed in the Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) where they receive medical treatment at designated GP practices where additional security measures are in place.

NHS Kent and Medway says 194 patients are now on the scheme, with 146 patients in Sussex also registered.

NHS Surrey Heartlands, which covers part of the county, said 21 patients had been taken off their GPs' lists because of abusive behaviour.

A spokesperson said: "£500,000 has been provided to help practices maintain a safe environment for patients and staff.

"This funding is being used to install panic alarms, CCTV, external lighting and screens at reception."

'Increase in abuse'

Staff safety was recently discussed with the Kent Local Medical Committee, a body that represents doctors.

Chair of the committee, Dr Gaurav Gupta, said: "There's an increase in abuse and staff should not have to work in fear."

Dr Gupta, who runs a practice in Faversham, said: "We have had to install CCTV, screens at the front of reception and door access systems so staff feel safe and can do their job without any fear.

"Patients might be frustrated because of the delays and the pressure the NHS is under, but if someone is abusive, we have less staff to treat patients and that increases delays further," Dr Gupta said.

"If we hear of these incidents, then other people don''t want to apply for those jobs," he added.

Dr Ash Peshen, deputy chief medical officer for NHS Kent and Medway, said: "We really need the practices to speak to us if they are facing any challenges.

"The most important thing for us, other than supporting and protecting our patients, is to protect and support our staff.

"There is a small, miniscule minority who can get angry and quite violent towards staff and it has a huge impact on them, physically and mentally."

Hayley Mills, a practice manager in Kent, said she has had to deal with threats of abuse on a daily basis since covid

Hayley Mills, a practice manager in Strood, says she has seen a rise in aggressive and abusive patients.

"On a daily basis we have verbal abuse. The aggression is becoming more and more personal towards the staff.

"We have a shared car park and it got to the stage where we asked somebody to move their car so a doctor could get out to do a home visit, that person went and spat on the handles of all of our cars," she said.

"We can have patients removed from the surgery. In the last couple of months we have had to remove three or four patients."

In 2022 the British Medical Journal revealed that violent incidents at GP surgeries had doubled in less than five years.

Police forces across the UK recorded 1,068 violent incidents between 2021 and 2022, up from 586 between 2017 and 2018.

The chairman of the Royal College of GPs called the findings "unacceptable".

Charlotte Luck said she had to re-install warnings on the phone system at her practice after abusive calls from a minority of patients

Charlotte Luck, a practice manager in East Sussex, said abusive patients were "in the small minority", and they had had to re-introduce a warning on their telephone system urging patients not to abuse staff.

"We've had people make threats, saying they are going to die because a receptionist hasn't been able to give them an appointment there and then.

"There is no excuse for threats or abuse."

NHS Sussex held a summit last year and launched a new strategy to reduce violence towards staff in the NHS.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "The government is clear that there is never a justification for unacceptable behaviour towards general practice staff, who have the right to work free from fear of threats and abuse.

"To support practices, we have provided £5million of capital funding for them to invest in extra security measures, such as CCTV, panic buttons and screens at reception while extensive coaching support and practitioner mental health services are available for all staff."

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