Hospital bullying

According to a survey on behalf of the Care Quality Commission, two per cent of the 3,926 employees questioned at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust – nearly half the workforce – say they have experienced physical violence by fellow staff.

Considering that this is twice the national average, it might be thought that the trust’s management would have been aware of the problem. Not a single complaint of staff-on-staff violence was received last year, however, suggesting that – for whatever reason – victims are worried about coming forward.

Disturbingly, the survey also shows 15 per cent of employees suffering non-violent abuse from colleagues, two per cent more than the total who said they had been abused by the public. These results place the trust among the worst 20 per cent in the country for staff-on-staff violence.

Clearly there is something seriously awry here. Yet this is by no means a struggling trust. Yes, it has had its share of problems, with an unusually high number of deaths after surgery and with long waiting periods at hospital. And, like all trusts, it is under pressure to initiate spending cuts.

None of this, however, explains why there appears to be an unusually widespread problem of bullying within Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals. If the trust is to achieve its ambition of gaining foundation status, however, it needs to identify the causes of this malaise and correct them as soon as possible.