Nearly ten hospital admissions a day for violent attacks and knife crime in Yorkshire last year, figures reveal

Analysis of NHS figures show there were 3,565 admissions to hospitals in Yorkshire in the year ending March 2020.

The figures include people assaulted by bodily force, such as punching and kicking, as well as serious injuries inflicted by knives, sharp objects and blunt objects.

Worryingly, there were 30 admissions to Sheffield Children's Hospital for patients with assault injuries, meaning children are among those injured.

The figures also include those from South Tees NHS Trust which runs James Cook University Hospital in Middlesborough and The Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.

Trusts with hospitals in the region's bigger cities and with major trauma centres saw the highest number of patients who had been victims of violence. Patients who are seriously injured in attacks may, in some instances, be transported to a hospital in another locality to be treated by specialists.

Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust received 675 admissions who had been attacked or assaulted in this period, the highest of any NHS Trust in Yorkshire. This includes admissions to Leeds General Infirmary, which has a trauma centre for treating the most serious injuries.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which also has a trauma centre at Northern General Hospital, saw 565 assault admissions, while Bradford Teaching Hospitals similarly had 390 admissions.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals, which include Pinderfields in Wakefield and Dewsbury District Hospital, treated 385 patients who had been attacked.

Anti-violence charities are now saying more needs to be done to tackle issues such as knife crime and alcohol-fuelled brawls, with national figures revealing in total that there were 28,905 assault admissions to hospitals across England last year.

While there is no local breakdown of the numbers, injuries from bodily force were the most common reason for assault patients being treated, accounting for 28,905 hospital admissions, followed by knife wounds (4,674) and injuries inflicted by blunt objects such as baseball bats (2,115).

Patrick Green, CEO of anti-knife charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said it was a relief to see a drop in knife-related injuries, after admissions fell from 5,069 in 2018-19.

But with admissions still the third highest for a decade, he said there is still a "long way to go before we can start to think that we are turning the tide on knife crime".

He added: "No child is born carrying a knife. It is a learned behaviour. We have to do more to educate young people about the dangers of knife crime to help them to make positive choices, and not end up in hospital wards or police cells."

The figures also showed a disparity in the types of attacks suffered by men and women, with the second most common reason for women and girls to be treated by consultants was assaults involving physical and sexual abuse, mental cruelty or torture.

Rape or sexual assault of female victims also increased by 89 per cent since 2015-16, rising from 116 to 219.

The figures count each period a patient spends under one consultant’s care, so someone could be captured more than once after being admitted.

Only the primary cause of a patient’s injury is recorded, and a victim could fall under another category if their sexual or physical abuse was a secondary diagnosis.

Sarah Green, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said NHS staff who are unaware of the signs of domestic abuse often miss opportunities to intervene and direct victims to support services, or to pass relevant information to GPs.

She said: “The figures mean that health workers are likely to have a lot of information about both victims and offenders and ongoing needs and risks – information which the police perhaps do not have.

“We need to know whether women are guaranteed to get the best support, advice and onward referral if it is at all suspected that they’re in hospital because of domestic or sexual abuse.”

An NHS England spokesman said staff are offered training to help them advise and support victims, and that trusts can provide access to an independent domestic abuse adviser, with work under way to expand the availability of these services.

But Ms Green said the use of such advisers should be standard practice in hospitals, rather than being left to staff to decide.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said police response to domestic abuse is only part of the answer, and that a proportion of cases are reported to them by GPs, A&E staff and other health workers.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, NPCC lead for domestic abuse, said: “Healthcare professionals play a vital role in ensuring that victims receive timely care and support, whether from the NHS, police or a third sector service.

“Arrests and prosecutions may provide a temporary respite for victims but a public health response is vital to keep people safe and provide a lasting solution.

“The NHS is in a unique position to help victims whose contact with the outside world is restricted by a violent partner, or who may not wish to become involved with the police or the criminal justice system.”

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