Nearly all UK emergency staff report daily violence and abuse, survey finds
A Royal College of Emergency Medicine survey shows 96% of emergency department workers have faced aggression or violence, with most incidents occurring weekly or daily.
A recent survey conducted by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine among 2,126 emergency department employees found that 96% have encountered violence or hostility from patients or visitors, with 73% experiencing such behaviour on a weekly or daily basis. Discriminatory attacks featured in two-thirds of the incidents, and merely four percent of staff feel safe at all times, though a slight majority feel safe most of the time.
Only 41% of those who reported assaults believe their NHS trust responded effectively. The RCEM’s new Safe to Care campaign, led by President Ian Higginson, calls on policymakers and NHS leaders to improve safety, citing long waits, overcrowding, staffing shortages and corridor care as key drivers. Department of Health and Social Care officials reiterated that violence against NHS staff is unacceptable and referenced new staff standards aimed at reducing abuse.
How the sides frame it
MODERATE AGREEMENTLeft-leaning coverage frames the issue as a pervasive, systemic crisis of daily violence and abuse against emergency staff, using moral condemnation, while centrist coverage highlights a single high-profile assault and calls for improved reporting and security measures.
LEFT
The coverage portrays emergency-room violence as a widespread, disgraceful epidemic that victimises staff and demands urgent systemic reform.
CENTER
The coverage presents a specific assault case as evidence of a significant, under-reported problem and urges better incident reporting and hospital security.
The left emphasises
- 96% of emergency staff encounter violence or hostility, with 73% experiencing it weekly or daily.
- Violence is described as “disgraceful,” “bullying,” and “cowardly,” and staff are likened to “human punchbags.”
- Calls for policymakers and NHS leaders to address root causes such as overcrowding, long waits, and staffing shortages.
Possibly left out
- Centrist coverage reports a single assault incident, absent from one outlet’s survey-wide analysis.
