Royal Berkshire hospital teams up with Police to end abuse and violence against staff

Royal Berkshire hospital say in each of the last two years around 900 incidents of abuse or violence has been reported against their staff.

Now they've teamed up with Thames Valley Police to launch Operation Cavell which will give priority support to staff who are victims.

The idea is to encourage a zero tolerance approach and support staff in reporting incidents.

Chief executive of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust Steve McManus said:

"Operation Cavell will give our staff hopefully the confidence about reporting issues of abuse to the Police knowing that they'll get a really strong response but also knowing that they'll get the support from the organisation and me directly about knowing that they will be given the time to be able to engage with the Police."

Jess works as a sister in the hospital's emergency department - she said there are daily incidents and it's 'scary':

"At times I've been hit, punched, I've been pushed, I've been spat on and it's not nice and especially as I'm the nurse in charge you have to be there for your junior team and you have to stand there and be strong.

"We all came into this profession to care for people and make people better, we didn't come into this profession to be abused."

Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Kirby is head of crime and intelligence for Thames Valley Police. He said staff have the right to feel safe:

"We know that there is under-reporting across the NHS trust there's too much tolerance which helps people to become 'enabled' to carry on offending, and people who are committing offences in an NHS setting will often be committing offences elsewhere."

Jess believes the new partnership can make a difference:

"It should be zero tolerance - violence, aggression, abuse, and it's nice to know we have the support of TVP (Thames Valley Police) and I'm hoping it will have a positive change."

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