NHS Forth Valley has defended its position after failing to respond to a survey revealing the scale of assaults on hospital staff in Scotland.
The Unison Scotland report reveals the number of violent incidents carried out on staff between April 2021 and March 2022, with the union requesting information from all of the country’s health boards.
In total, it reveals more than 18,000 assaults were carried out on staff over the time period and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde reported the most incidents with a total of 4.949.
However, four of the country’s health boards did not respond to the union’s Freedom of Information Request in time for the report, with NHS Forth Valley the only territorial health board not to do so.
Unison Scotland’s head of health Matt Mclaughlin said: “One assault on NHS staff is one too many.
“Over 18,000 assaults of NHS staff is simply unacceptable and we are under no doubt that there is considerable under reporting.
“Working in the NHS is stressful enough without having to worry about your personal safety.
“NHS boards must take a zero-tolerance approach and improve the reporting system which NHS staff have little faith in. While NHS boards must invest in dynamic risk assessments, staff training and reporting systems, it is vital that the Scottish Government tackles the staffing crisis in the NHS.
“Staff are under huge pressure due to the staffing crisis in the NHS and they need time to report incidents.
“NHS staff have little trust in the current DATIX reporting system.
“They need to know if they report something it will be dealt with there and then and that the police will be called.”
In response to the report, an NHS Forth Valley spokeswoman said the health board had initially responded to Unison asking for clarification on the information to be disclosed, but said the union never responded to their request.
The spokeswoman said: “Our Information Governance Department received an FOI request from Unison on June 21 2022 and went back to them that same day to seek clarification on how their definition of violent incidents to help identify the type of information they were looking for (e.g. incidents of verbal abuse, physical assaults etc).
“However, they never responded and the request was put on hold in line with national FOI guidance.
“Information on violence against staff is readily available and reviewed on a quarterly basis by our local Area Partnership Forum.
“In 2020/21 there were 797 physical assaults on local staff in NHS Forth Valley compared to 908 in 2019 and a total of 1543 incidents involving any form of violence and aggression behaviour (including verbal abuse) compared to 1569 in 2019 so the number of reported physical assaults decreased by 111 (12 per cent) and the number of overall incidents also decreased slightly by 26.”
