By Laurie Watson

Healthcare staff across Tayside and Fife became the victims of almost 1000 assaults in NHS premises last year.

Although both health authorities insist their introduction of a ‘zero tolerance’ approach is attempting to safeguard the working environment for nurses, the new figures suggests they face an uphill struggle.

The latest assault figures from NHS Tayside reveal that there were 528 attacks on NHS staff in hospital premises up until the end of November.

For the same period in Fife, a total of 451 incidents of assault were reported, which represents an increase of 130 incidents on the figures for 2004.

However, a spokeswoman for NHS Fife defended the rise claiming a zero tolerance campaign had encouraged more nurses, who had been targeted, to come forward and complain.

“NHS Fife takes the health, safety and welfare of its entire staff extremely seriously,” she said. “In December 2004 we launched a zero tolerance campaign to address problems relating to incidents of violence and aggression towards staff.

“A main area of focus has been to encourage staff to report all incidents of violence and aggression irrespective of how minor they may be.

“Within our Acute Hospitals a total of 321 incidents of violence and aggression towards staff were reported in 2004. We recognise however that this increase in incidents might be due to the success of the zero tolerance campaign and raising awareness amongst staff.”

NHS Tayside’s director of human resources, Alan Boyter, said every incident was treated extremely seriously, claiming every assault was reported to the police.

“Over the last few years we have operated a zero tolerance policy throughout NHS Tayside,” he said. “This means that all incidents against staff are reported immediately to the police.

“Our staff strive very hard to deliver the best service in what are sometimes challenging environments and we will simply not accept people assaulting, abusing or obstructing them.”

The alarming figures come amid union fears that more nurses are being attacked in Scotland’s hospitals despite the widespread introduction of zero tolerance campaigns.

Yesterday, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) published its latest staff survey, showing more than four out of 10 nurses had been harassed or attacked at work last year.

The chairwoman of the RCN’s Scottish board, Jane McCready, said that health boards should seriously consider refusing to treat violent patients to force home the message that dealing with aggression is not part of a nurse’s job description.

She said, “Nursing staff work incredibly hard to provide the best possible care to all patients. They have the right to come to work without the fear of assault or abuse.”

The report shows the proportion of nurses reporting a verbal or physical attack increased from 39% in 2000 to 42% last year.

A third of all Scots nurses now say they have been attacked physically at work during their career—higher than anywhere else in the UK. Twice as many say they have suffered verbal abuse at work.

However, the union claimed that fewer than half of the nurses polled felt the incident was dealt with properly as only one attack in 100 led to the patient being denied treatment—and just one in 20 attacks involved the police.

With almost half the nursing population seemingly working under the constant threat of violence, RCN Scotland’s chair, Jane McCready, called for a greater uptake in the use of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act. This provides penalties of up to nine months’ imprisonment and a fine of £5000 for anyone assaulting or hindering healthcare workers in a hospital.

A Scottish Executive spokesman warned that those carrying out the attacks were in line to face tougher consequences.

“To attack or intimidate those dedicated staff who are trying to help people in need is abhorrent. We simply will not stand for it.”

The spokesman said that over £700,000 had been invested in projects to reduce violence and aggression. However he insisted that several boards were ready to resort to stopping the treatment of violent patients.

“Of course, if a patient is being violent, withdrawal of treatment is a possibility, and several health boards have introduced this as the final sanction,” he said.