Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 23:59:33 +0000
Subject: Re:Assaulting clinical staff
From: Robbie Coull <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
I was attacked by a drunken punter who's hand injury I was trying to stitch in A+E.
He swung at me with his good hand and when the nurse and I retreated he chased us with a chair
until his girlfriend calmed him down. He then did a runner out of the department.
Since he'd given us his details the police just went round to his house and arrested him.
The fiscal prosecuted and he had to pay a #1000 fine and give me and the nurse #100 each (no
previous trouble).
(Fortunately he pleaded guilty because I wasn't looking forward to recounting under oath my
exact words to him at the time!)
Robbie Coull
Violence (verbal or physical) against nurses, doctors, paramedics etc is totally unacceptable.
Although we have a duty of care to our patients, this duty of care does not extend to being
bashed whilst in the execution thereof. The trouble is, I don't think many employers are tough
enough with aggressive patients / relatives, although this is begining to change slowly. I
consider that it is perfectly justifiable to exclude patients and relatives from the hospital
environment and refuse treatment if they are a threat to staff and other patients but this does
need to be backed up with additional security measures.
Chris Cheeseman
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