A GP practice in Stoke-on-Trent had to call the police after a member of staff was threatened with a knife.
Staffordshire police said it received a report of a man threatening a woman with a knife at Barlaston Health Centre in Old Road yesterday morning.
He was arrested on suspicion of threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place and the victim, a woman in her 50s, was uninjured, the force said.
A police spokesperson told Pulse: ‘We arrested a man after a woman was threatened with a knife in Stoke-on-Trent.
‘Just before 10am yesterday (Monday 13 November) we received a report of a man with a knife inside an address on Old Road, Barlaston. He surrendered it when officers turned up at the scene.
‘The victim, a woman in her 50s, was uninjured. Officers are in the area this morning to offer reassurance and to speak to witnesses.
‘A 58-year-old man, from Stoke-on-Trent, was arrested on suspicion of threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place.
‘He has since been released on conditional police bail while enquiries continue.’
North Staffordshire LMC secretary Dr Anwar Tufail told Pulse: ‘I spoke to the practice and we offered our support as the local LMC, and we are also having a discussion with our ICB about how we can make it safer for our staff.’
The LMC’s chair Dr Chandra Kanneganti said: ‘We are advising all of our practices to have zero tolerance towards abusive behaviour. If they experience anything like that they should remove the patient from the practice list and contact the ICB.
‘We need a national campaign to reiterate the message that there’s zero tolerance to any kind of abuse towards staff.’
Pulse has approached the health centre for comment.
Last week, a man was arrested following a ‘violent attack’ at a practice in Sheffield, where two GP registrars were assaulted with a baseball bat.
Pulse’s investigation into the effects of abuse earlier this year showed a 16% rise in crimes involving violence at GP surgeries since 2019, after a drop in incidents during the pandemic.
And the reason for his behavior——–or is that irrelevant in these sort of reports?
Indeed irrelevant, I am unaware of any legal justification for knife crime.
Then, why would he want to break the law?
Off list and see with police for the rest of their life.
Obviously John he had a perfectly understandable reason to be threatening this 50 something lady with a knife, most likely he was OFF HIS ROCKER John. aka not very nice, a bit of a moron and certainly in need of a frank conversation with a police officer as is customary in the UK when people threaten to do things which might lead to someone’s untimely death.
FFS
@ A Non—–And the police officer——–in the frank discussion——-would liked to have known what came over him——-as will the magistrate—–I bet the 50 something lady does———so would the rest of us—————FFS