Health conference: Violence and harassment are not part of the job’

Image: Steve Forrest, Workers’ photos

Delegates at health conference have heard harrowing, personal stories of health workers facing violence and harassment in the course of their jobs.

The stories came in a section of motions, on Monday afternoon, looking at health, safety and wellbeing in the sector.

In one motion, on ‘challenging sexual harassment in the NHS’, Linda Hobson from Newcastle Hospitals branch recounted the stories of members coming to the branch and saying: “I do not feel confident bringing this forward formally.”

The delegate took aim at employers both without stand-alone sexual harassment policies and those who thought just having the policy was enough. “It’s not just about having the right policy, but about having the right culture.”

She finished by telling delegates how vital this issue was: “It’s not just important for the workforce we have now, or the workforce we want to recruit, but also for those women who have walked away from our NHS because they weren’t supported or protected.”

Preventing violence and protecting staff

A motion on securing accountability for violence prevention and reduction highlighted the findings of the NHS staff survey that, every year, over 200,000 staff face violence and aggression.

The motion stated that this is the equivalent of a staff member in the NHS suffering a physical assault every two and a half minutes.

Moving the motion, Michelle England said: “We need to say this really clearly – violence is not part of the job.

“Leaders in the NHS have got to do more to keep staff safe.”

Jamie Donaldson, of Grampian Health branch, added that physical violence was only one aspect. “What about our folk who answer the phone every day – how many times are they verbally abused?

“They say it’s part of the job – but it shouldn’t be. It’s a real burden,  being barraged by abuse.”

Speaking on the next motion, ‘protecting the victims of violent attacks at work’, Dave Byrom from Mid-Yorkshire Health branch, said: “This union surely cannot accept a situation where our members who are attacked at work endure a financial detriment as a result.”

The motion took aim at the removal of ‘payments for work outside normal hours’ from sick pay calculations which has resulted in the victims of violent attacks losing out financially.

It called on the SGE to raise the issue with the NHS Staff Council, to guarantee no financial detriment to workers who are the victims of violence in the workplace.

Focus group

Elsewhere at the conference, delegates gathered to discuss how to prevent and reduce violence in the NHS.

From left: Nadia Butler, Lisa Jones and Alan Lofthouse at the violence prevention focus group. Photo Steve Forrest, Workers’ photos

In a focus group on preventing and reducing violence and aggression against NHS staff, two researchers from Liverpool John Moores University, Lisa Jones and Nadia Butler, presented their findings on violence in the NHS.

They found that one in seven NHS staff had experienced physical violence from patients, relatives and the public in the past year, while three in 10 had experienced harassment or abuse over the same time period. Meanwhile, one in five had experienced workplace bullying over the previous six months.

Their taking a public health approach to these figures led them to the conclusion that violence in the NHS was costing an estimated £1.36bn a year.

In particular, ‘sickness presenteeism’ (where staff should be taking sick days but are not for a variety of reasons) was costing nearly £600m a year in productivity losses.

Other huge costs included medical treatment and rehabilitation (£283m) and agency & overtime costs (£127m).

Their research made several key recommendations, including standardising definitions and data collection methods and developing a national system for data on violence to ensure consistency, as well as fostering a true culture of zero-tolerance towards violence, harassment and abuse.

Alan Lofthouse, UNISON senior national officer for health, spoke about the union’s work lobbying for the Violence Prevention and Reduction Standard.

The standard evaluates the performance of NHS organisations over a number of factors, to demonstrate where they can improve to reduce and prevent violence toward staff.

Mr Lofthouse said UNISON’s position was that “it should be ‘have to do’ not ‘nice to do’.”

He also outlined the work of trade unions in the standard, including their strategic role at national, regional and local levels and identifying how violence is experienced differently based on protected characteristics.

The article Health conference: Violence and harassment are not part of the job’ first appeared on the UNISON National site.