LONDON (Reuters), Apr 2 - Health staff are facing "unacceptably high" levels of violence, with nearly a half of ambulance workers reporting harassment from patients and their families, a national survey said on Friday.
One in eight National Health Service (NHS) staff said they had experienced violence from patients in the last year, the Healthcare Commission said.
"NHS staff deserve our respect and praise for what is often life-saving work, not violence and abuse," said Anna Walker, chief executive of the commission, the independent inspection body for the NHS.
More than 128,000 staff in 326 NHS trusts in England took part in the annual NHS survey last October.
The commission said levels of violence had remained constant over the past four years.
But it said harassment, bullying and abuse were on the rise, with ambulance staff suffering the most.
Patients and their relatives were not the only source of abuse. The commission said ambulance staff were experiencing their highest ever level of bullying and harassment from other NHS workers, reported by nearly a fifth of the paramedics.
"There has been a lot of action by trusts to tackle the problem of violence and abuse in the workplace, but more must be done," said Walker. "We are calling on trusts to redouble their efforts in this area. We must all adopt a zero tolerance policy to such behaviour," she added.
Karen Jennings of the Unison staff union said NHS workers were seeing their personal safety deteriorate along with their pay.
"Despite well-meaning initiatives in the health service to tackle violence against workers, this survey confirms that a much more robust deterrent is needed to crack down completely on abuse and attacks on health staff," Jennings said.
She noted that the survey found that a very high proportion of NHS staff regularly worked unpaid overtime, including 57% of workers in acute trusts.
"It is even more important for the government to rethink its paltry annual pay award for our embattled health workers," she said.
The government is paying health staff a 2.5% rise in two stages, which Unison says is equivalent to 1.9% and well below inflation.
The Department of Health said it was concerned at the rise in staff reporting violence, bullying and harassment.
By Tim Castle
Last Updated: 2007-03-30 15:09:11 -0400 (Reuters Health)
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