No room for abuse but the personal touch should not be overlooked in the NHS - Ismail Mulla

First of all, it makes you wonder why patients or even loved ones of patients would exhibit such behaviour towards people there to help them?

We all grow frustrated from time to time. Not least when it comes to the healthcare system. But letting out frustrations on any NHS worker is not the answer.

It’s clearly not an issue that is exclusive to this particular hospital I visited. New research shows that NHS staff are being harassed by members of the public filming them with phones and threatening to post footage online.

The union Unison said a survey of thousands of UK health workers revealed that one in seven have experienced unwanted and intrusive filming or photography in the past year.

While abuse should not be accepted in any circumstances, it’s important to understand the causes for frustrations boiling over.

The greatest cause for frustration is the notion that patients and their families are not being listened to.

In the majority of cases, should a medical professional communicate with patients then it would at the very least diffuse tense situations.

Making the NHS more and more faceless adds to the helplessness that many patients feel. The importance of that human connection when people are facing health challenges should never be underestimated.

That is why whenever the Government peddles technology as the answer for the malady the NHS faces, I find myself rolling my eyes.

The Health Secretary’s latest suggestion is that younger and fitter people could be directed to pharmacy care using the NHS app, leaving GPs to devote their time in-person to sicker and older patients.

Wes Streeting says a modernised version of the health service’s phone app could mean the NHS could “do a much better and faster job of making sure patients get the right care at the right time in the right place”.

This isn’t about being anti-technology. Yes, there are ways that it could help deliver much better patient care but young people also need face to face contact with healthcare professionals.

On another trip to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, I saw first hand how healthcare workers with great interpersonal skills can make a huge difference to a patient’s experience.

It won’t fix whatever health problems they have but it can make a world of difference to their mood.

You could feel the whole waiting room’s mood lift as a cheery nurse called patients in one by one for their scan. No shiny app is going to be able to replicate that.

When it comes to GP surgeries, the greatest point of frustration has been GPs and even secretarial staff hiding behind inaccessible telephone lines.

There has been a marked improvement in recent months at my local surgery but you just know that too many other surgeries are still not meeting patient expectations.

Back to the research about phones being used to intimidate healthcare workers, it points to some real cowardly behaviour.

For example experiences have included people using their phones to film health workers on duty or giving emergency care as they treat patients for cardiac arrests and then that footage being livestreamed or put on social media platforms. It is sickening behaviour.

As Unison general secretary Christina McAnea says: “Health workers must be able to do their jobs free from harassment, unwanted and intrusive filming and associated threats of violence.

“Their work is tough enough as it is, without people shoving phones in their faces and putting them under a whole new level of pressure.

“Harassing NHS workers through social media, or threatening to post material online, is completely unacceptable.”

Frontline healthcare workers should not be left to deal with bullies on their own.

NHS managers and the Government need to front up and put in place safeguards that prevent unacceptable behaviour such as that outlined by this research.

As for those who think it’s fine to threaten NHS staff using cameras, they need to look in the mirror and ask questions of themselves. Especially those getting in the way of patient care.