Six people banned from Nottingham hospitals over behaviour

Security guard Leston Scafe, known as Sugar, was filmed dealing with an aggressive patient during an episode of Channel 4's 24 Hours in A&E

Six patients have been excluded from treatment after a hospital trust introduced a red and yellow card system for violent and aggressive patients.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust introduced the system following a rise in reported incidents against staff.

Red cards have already been issued to six patients, meaning they will only be treated if they need life-saving care.

The trust said it was "extremely important" to protect its staff.

Gilbert George, director of corporate governance and legal at NUH, said: "I think you can imagine the emotional impact of coming in to do a day's work, where you're wanting to serve the public, and then you find yourself being abused, harassed, sometimes violently harassed in terms of folks either physically hitting you or unfortunately spitting at you, which is very unpleasant."

People 'lash out'

The trust, which runs Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen's Medical Centre, recorded 1,237 incidents of aggression, violence and harassment (AVH) towards staff in the 2021-22 financial year.

This rose to 1,806 in the 2022-23 financial year.

"The numbers projected for the end of March 2024 is over 2,200, so in the last three years we've seen an increase in this type of behaviour and it is really concerning," said Mr Gilbert.

Clinical staff at Nottingham's hospitals have also been given hundreds of body-worn cameras in an effort to protect them from abuse.

When asked what might be behind the rise in incidents, Mr Gilbert said: "You've got to think about society generally speaking, not only in the NHS but we have seen in public services a general increase in that sort of behaviour against public servants, so I dare say the NHS is just another service that people feel they can lash out at unfortunately."

Gilbert George said the rise in reported incidents was "really concerning"

The yellow and red card warnings were introduced in January 2023.

Yellow cards, also known as "yellow warning alerts", have been issued 20 times since then and 16 are still in force.

Behaviours they have been issued for include racial abuse, religious harassment, throwing vomit and faeces, anti-social/aggressive behaviour, spitting, sexually-inappropriate touching, physical abuse and threats to staff.

A "yellow warning alert letter" goes on the patient's medical record to make staff aware.

Yellow alerts are reviewed after six months, when alerts are either extended or removed.

The trust said red cards, or "red warning alerts", were issued for "verbal and physical assaults, intimidation and threats, racial abuse, and significant ongoing threats of intimidation and physical abuse".

They remain in place for a year and are reviewed by a panel after that.

Mr Scafe said dealing with abuse was "really, really challenging"

Security guard Leston Scafe, known as Sugar, said he and his colleagues dealt with incidents on a daily basis.

He has worked at the Queen's Medical Centre for almost four years and said he had noticed a rise in that time.

"It's really, really challenging when you're going through the abuse," he said.

"We depend on the police to come and arrest some of them. Sometimes they come and sometimes they don't.

"But we still have to carry on because we have a duty of care anyway. And we have to protect not just ourselves but other members of the public and patients in the hospital."