Assaults on NHS staff fall to eight-year low

STAFF safety (from left): security officers Tony Robinson and Dee Hussein with Glynis Jones (local security management specialist at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust)

Assaults against staff working at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have fallen for the second year in a row - to what is now the lowest number since 2006-07.

Workers at the trust, which manages the Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and Rochdale Infirmary, faced 171 assaults in 2014-15, down from 207 the previous year.

It is believed new staff training has played a significant part in the reduction. A recent security survey showed that 3.2 per cent of Pennine trust staff had been physically assaulted in the last six months.

The poll also showed that 24.4 per cent of staff had been subjected to verbal abuse by a patient or member of the public in the last six months. But over 81 per cent of staff said they felt safe working on trust premises.