Attacks on A&E nurses have almost doubled over the last six years, with incidents often involving patients frustrated at waiting so long for care.
Nurses have been punched, spat at, pinned up against a wall, had a gun pointed at them and been threatened with having acid thrown at them, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
NHS figures show that the number of incidents of violence against nurses in A&E units in hospitals in England rose from 2,122 in 2019 to 4,054 in 2024 – a 91% increase.
“Behind these shocking figures lies an ugly truth,” said Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the RCN, which obtained the data using freedom of information laws.
“Dedicated and hard-working nursing staff face rising violent attacks because of systemic failures that are no fault of their own. Every incident is unacceptable,” she said.
Rachelle McCarthy, a charge nurse in the east Midlands, said that in her A&E department “even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait”.
Once she was punched “square in the face” by “a drunk, 6ft 2in bloke”, she said.
In another incident a patient in the waiting room of the A&E where the senior sister Sarah Tappy works in east London punched her in the head, knocking her unconscious. “The violence is awful. And it’s just constant. Nurses. Doctors. Receptionists. None of us feel safe,” she said.
A senior A&E nurse in England’s south-west said she had seen violence against staff in her wards many times, including a patient “pinning a nurse up against a wall” and another colleague being punched by a patient “in the groin and stomach”.
The number of attacks on A&E staff at Southmead hospital in Bristol rose from 83 in 2019 to 152 last year. They doubled at Manchester Royal Infirmary from 39 to 79 over the same time period, and increased from 13 to 89 at Maidstone hospital in Kent, NHS figures given to the RCN showed.
Daniel Elkeles, the chief executive of hospitals group NHS Providers, said: “These findings are absolutely shocking.
“NHS staff need a safe and respectful environment to look after patients, free from any threat of violence or intimidation, be they in hospital, mental health, community or ambulance settings.
“Delays for treatment are frustrating for patients and staff. Every effort is being made to keep these to a minimum.”
The union demanded immediate government action to curb the “rising tide of violence”. It wants a…
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