One in seven NHS staff experience physical violence from patients, survey finds

One in seven NHS staff (14.38%) experienced physical violence from patients, their relatives or other members of the public in 2024, according to the latest annual NHS staff survey.

The report revealed attacks on staff have increased since 2023 (13.88%) – though numbers are below the record levels seen between 2020 to 2022 during and following the pandemic.

Staff experiencing discrimination at work reached its highest level in five years (9.25%), with more than half (54.09%) saying the discrimination they received from patients and the public was based on their ethnic background.

One in 12 (8.82%) NHS workers experienced unwanted sexual behaviour – including offensive comments, touching and assault.

The proportion of staff affected remained similar to the level reported in 2023 (8.79%) when the question was first asked.

The national education and training survey, which has also been published recently, found that 13% of learners experienced or witnessed unwanted, harmful or inappropriate sexual behaviour by patients.

The NHS launched a new national sexual misconduct policy framework in October to ensure NHS trusts had policies in place to allow NHS staff to report incidents of sexual misconduct anonymously.

Every care board and NHS trust in England has signed up to the NHS sexual safety charter, which commits them to a zero-tolerance approach to letting unwanted behaviours go unaddressed within the workplace.