Red card bans for abusive patients and relatives in hospitals
Posted 28 February 2024 - 12:40
Essex NHS trust's No Abuse, No Excuse campaign includes body cameras and red card bans to violent patients or visitors, to help protect nurses from abuse
Death threats, physical assaults and racist slurs aimed at nurses and health workers have prompted one NHS trust to make it easier for staff to ban violent patients and visitors from their hospital sites.
People who are aggressive towards staff could be given a ‘red card’ and prohibited from attending Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) for up to 12 months.
Aggression forces trust to take action
The initiative was developed after workers at the Essex trust have been punched, threatened, subject to racist abuse – including being told to: ‘Go back to the jungle’ – and had their teeth broken by violent patients.
As a result, the trust has launched a new campaign – No Abuse, No Excuse – to reduce violence and aggression towards staff, which includes the introduction of 60 body cameras for health workers.
‘I tried to calm him down and he punched me in the stomach’
Nurse Yvonne Ihekwoaba, who has become one of the faces of the campaign, said: ‘My patient was verbally abusive when I offered him his medication. I tried to calm him down and he punched me in the stomach and I landed on the floor.
‘I had to be rushed to the emergency department, where l was given pain relief and an X-ray. The police took a statement from me and asked if l wanted to press charges, which l did. Then l had to go home due to the pain.
‘Afterwards I felt vulnerable, insecure, always apprehensive and panicked whenever l was dealing with an aggressive or unsettled patient.’
Another nurse, Jevita, told how she was ‘punched in the face while taking a patient’s blood pressure’, while a matron called Lisa said she was verbally abused and threatened with assault by a patient’s relative.
New scheme makes it more straightforward to ban abusers
With cases of violence doubling from 36 to 75 incidents in the past three years, a BHRUT spokesperson said the organisation was making it more straightforward for staff to red card abusive patients from its hospitals ‘when it is clinically safe to do so’.
Under the existing, more complicated rules, this has only happened once in the past five years. Plans also include increased visibility of security staff and de-escalation training courses for employees.
‘Our staff should not be shouted at, hit, or subjected to racist abuse’
Figures from the 2022 NHS Staff Survey in England show that 28% of staff had been subject to harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, their relatives or other members of the public while at work.
BHRUT chief executive Matthew Trainer said: ‘Our staff should not be shouted at, hit, or subjected to racist abuse while doing their job. It’s happening more often to colleagues in our hospitals, and we are taking action to respond to their concerns.
‘Our message couldn’t be simpler: no abuse, no excuse.’
Read more about the campaign
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