A senior GP warns that the steep rise is likely to have a “significant impact” on doctors and staff.
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Violent incidents at GP surgeries have doubled in less than five years, according to figures from police forces across the UK.
An investigation by the British Medical Journal found the number of assaults at surgeries and health centres resulting in injury had almost doubled too.
Police forces recorded 1,068 violent incidents between 2021 and 2022, up from 586 between 2017 and 2018.
The chairman of the Royal College of GPs called the findings “unacceptable”.
Professor Martin Marshall told the BBC: “The findings from this investigation need to be taken seriously.
“It’s entirely unacceptable for anyone working in general practice to be at the receiving end of abuse of any kind when they are just doing their best to deliver vital care and services to patients, but the increase in reports of physical violence is particularly distressing.”
Added frustration
Prof Marshall said the abuse would have “a significant impact on the mental health, wellbeing and morale of individual doctors and practice staff”.
There are concerns that more GPs may leave the profession due to harassment and threats of violence faced at work.
The pandemic has been cited as a cause for the increase in violence, as services came under more pressure.
Some patients also believed services had closed altogether, leading to added frustration.
The BMJ was able to obtain complete and comparable data from 32 police forces across the UK.
It revealed there were 182 assaults resulting in injury in the last year – almost double the 98 recorded in 2017-18.
Recorded incidents of stalking and harassment at surgeries and health centres also tripled in the same period, from 85 in 2017 to 223 in the last year.
The UK annual conference of local medical committees recently proposed that surgeries should be given more power to remove abusive patients immediately and strike them off their register.
Dr Richard Van Mellaerts, who sits on the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said the BMJ figures matched the experience of doctors he’s spoken to, including those in his own clinic in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey.
‘No excuse’ for violence
He said: “I regularly hear abuse directed at reception staff in my practice. We’ve had to call the police several times over the last year.
“I know GPs who have been attacked, their reception area has been damaged, and their consultation room has been wrecked.
“It is absolutely appalling. Any single instance of abuse or violence or harassment towards any GP or practice staff or any NHS staff is one too many, and it should never be tolerated.”
Dr Van Mellaerts said there could be several reasons for the increase in violence, including patient frustration at remote or telephone appointments instead of in-person visits.
He also pointed out that “fewer GPs are doing more and more”, meaning it was difficult for people to access the help they needed.
But he said that should not “excuse any kind of violence”.