The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is calling on the government to reverse what it describes as an “utterly abhorrent” rise in violence against staff by taking decisive action to reduce lengthy waits in A&E in English hospitals, ending corridor care and tackling chronic understaffing.
RCN has analysed data from Freedom of Information requests to 89 Trusts in England and found 4,054 incidences of physical violence against staff were recorded in 2024 compared to 2,093 in 2019. The analysis also shows that waits of more than 12 hours in A&E increased by more than 20 times in the same period.
Punching, spitting and acid attack threats are just some of the behaviours that staff in NHS emergency departments are exposed to.
Consequences
The RCN is warning ministers that failing to reduce violence in healthcare settings will see the government’s 10-Year Health Plan “fail completely.”
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, says: “Every incident is unacceptable, but we need ministers and trust leaders to acknowledge some of the key underlying causes.”
The rise has been so pronounced that it means during a typical working day in England, a member of staff working in the emergency department is being attacked every hour.
A senior A&E nurse said her hospital was a “tinder box” for violence. She has seen colleagues punched, kicked and had a gun pointed at them, and has herself been spat at by a patient and threatened with an acid attack. She developed depression and anxiety and has taken a secondment in research as a break from the profession.
Senior charge nurse Rachelle said that things have got so bad in her hospital that: “even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait.”
"The government needs to do more than record the shocking level of violence – it needs to reduce it,” Nicola adds. "Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.”
