Man arrested after staff member assaulted and injured at GP practice
Police have arrested a 62-year old man, after a member of staff was assaulted and injured at a GP practice in Hampshire.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said that on Monday (19 January) police officers were called to a report of a man entering Fleet Medical Centre and behaving ‘in a threating way’ towards staff.
A plastic screen was then smashed, and a female staff member was injured and was taken to hospital to receive treatment.
In a statement, Hart Health Partnership, who run the practice, said: ‘Following a serious assault on one of our team, a reminder that the NHS and Hart Health Partnership are zero tolerance environments.
‘Staff who work for us should feel safe. No one comes to work to be attacked or abused.’
On Wednesday (21 January), the force arrested a man on suspicion of common assault of an emergency worker, criminal damage to property and use of threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
The man has been bailed with conditions, to allow for further enquiries to be carried out, the force said.
A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said: ‘We were called to a report that a man had entered the centre on Church Road and behaved in a threatening way towards staff at around 3.40pm on 19 January.
‘A plastic screen was then smashed, and a female staff member was injured. She was taken to hospital to receive treatment.’
Pulse has reported extensively on the issue of violence at GP surgeries, including a major investigation looking at the consequences for GPs and staff.
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READERS' COMMENTS [3]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
Bailed! This is a serious offence against an essential healthcare worker! Nothing less than an exemplary custodial sentence will do. Time for the CPS and the police to put their money where their mouth is. Others have been sent to prison for a few badly composed tweets. Sending solidarity to all staff at Fleet Medical Centre and hoping the affected staff member makes a swift recovery.
Yes, solidarity to all staff at Fleet Medical Centre.
It could have been any of us, but we have been lucky so far.
we are thinking of you
This is very sad and I hope the staff member and practice are ok.
It is important to highlight however that GP practice are contractually not allowed to be ‘zero tolerance’ environments to abusive non violent behaviour. The contract, and the commissioner enforcement of the contract, is that patients have a pass to abuse staff once a year before removal from list, only being allowed a warning which expires after 365 days.
Threats, threatening and violent behaviour in other settings also doesn’t count – only violence in the practice and direct threats delivered to the practice qualifies for the GP Special Allocation Scheme. Commissioners are happy with this arrangement as they have security and swipecard restricted doors in their offices, and the important medical settings – hospitals – have on site security guards.