Over 5,000 attacks on NHS staff in NI

Over 5,000 NHS staff in Northern Ireland have been attacked while working, it has today been revealed.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that it is to survey doctors as part of a new strategy to ensure that those who terrorise staff will be dealt with accordingly.

BMA chiefs have insisted that a zero tolerance attitude was required after some doctors were left too traumatised to work.

Dr Brian Patterson, Chairman of the Association's Northern Ireland Council, said: "Attacks on, threats to, and verbal abuse of doctors and other healthcare workers have to stop.

"We believe that assaults on NHS staff have risen to well over 5,000 in the last year and urgent action is needed to put a halt to this totally unacceptable situation."

He added that a local campaign will be launched in a bid to highlight and tackle the issue, and staff will be encouraged to report any abusive or violent acts perpetrated against them, and, as frequently as possible, to involve the PSNI.

He continued: "It's only when people realise they'll face a custodial sentence if they attack doctors and other healthcare workers that an end will be in sight."

The threat has become so great that at the Ulster Hospital, on the outskirts of east Belfast, that staff are being trained in martial arts, to enable them to protect themselves from violent patients.

Doctors are also appealing for extra funding to be made available for the installation of extra security including panic alarms in surgeries throughout the province.

(EF/KMcA)