Man charged after GP practice windows smashed

A man has been charged with criminal damage and abusive behaviour following an incident at a GP practice in Bristol just before Christmas.

Avon and Somerset Police officers were called to East Trees Health Centre on 21 December, where it stated that ‘windows and glass panels were smashed’.

The health centre, which also houses a pharmacy, continues to operate with ‘reduced capacity’ as a result, with the reception remaining closed to walk-in patients.

The GP practice has also been forced to cancel sexual health drop-in clinics ‘for the foreseeable future’, according to updates on its website. 

A police statement on the incident said: ‘A 34-year-old man was charged after a Bristol health centre was damaged. 

‘Sam Doyle, of no fixed address, appeared in Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Saturday 23 December after being charged with criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon and using threatening/abusive words/behaviour.’

It added: ‘The charges relate to an incident on Thursday 21 December when officers were called to a pharmacy and health centre on Fishponds Road, in Eastville, Bristol, where windows and glass panels were smashed. Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident.’

Senior GP partner at the practice Dr Victoria Bowler said: ‘An unknown man entered the practice with a long-handled hammer and destroyed our glass balcony, five of our front windows, the glass stair balustrades, the patient visual display panel and our inner porch doors. Pieces of glass and metal railings fell into the waiting room.

‘Patients sat in the waiting room until one of our doctors got them rapidly out of the space. Although terrified our staff evacuated the building, called the police and no one was injured.

‘One of the patients present at the time of the incident commented on the professionalism of the staff and how patient safety was clearly the priority.’

Dr Bowler said the practice has not closed ‘despite significant disruption’, with most appointments taking place via telephone and patients who need a face-to-face review being brought in by another entrance.

The practice’s reception is area is currently functioning out of its bike shed, and some other services have had to find alternative buildings to operate from, according to Dr Bowler.

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This week, the practice told patients: ‘Due to a major incident at the surgery before Christmas we are now currently working at reduced capacity. 

‘The surgery doors are closed but we are open for urgent care. Please call the surgery. Anything routine please contact us next week.’

On the day after the incident, the practice team said the building was ‘too dangerous to open for patients due to risk of injury’. 

Avon LMC chair Dr Shaba Nabi, whose own GP practice was attacked with anti-GP graffiti in 2020, said practice staff was being supported by the LMC and the ICB.

She told Pulse that although they had not seen ‘anything quite at this scale in the Bristol area’, it is ‘100% a wider issue because we’ve seen the same in this last year in other practices’, with ‘absolutely traumatising’ consequences for staff.

Dr Nabi added: ‘The biggest concern is that people will not want to come back to work. Probably the people most affected by this are the frontline staff such as receptionists because they’re so vulnerable and exposed, it being right at the patient interface.

‘And also the fact that, because of the funding issues within the general practice contract, they could earn better money with a less stressful job working somewhere like a supermarket.

‘So already they’re doing a job which is difficult because it’s dealing with patients’ emotions and patients’ health, and to add this level of violence into it, we’re going to lose probably a lot of reception staff and admin staff due to this, the frontline staff – but also obviously clinical staff as well.’

In July last year, there was a similar incident of criminal damage at a GP practice in Sheffield, where 13 windows and two doors were smashed in.

There have been many other instances of abuse towards GP practice staff in recent months – in November, a man was arrested in Stoke-on-Trent after GP staff were threatened with a knife, and another man was arrested in Sheffield after an assault on two GP registrars with a baseball bat. 

A council report in Bradford and Craven recently warned that GP practice staff face rising abuse due to media reporting as well as ‘often unchallenged’ views expressed on social media. 

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.