East London NHS staff wear bodycams to combat patient violence

Staff at an east London NHS Trust have started wearing body cameras in an attempt to cut violence towards them.

Patients or visitors who are aggressive could be banned from Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust for up to 12 months.

Heath workers there have experienced death threats, racist slurs and physical assaults.

The trust's chief executive said it was "taking action" to respond to the concerns of staff.

The trust runs the Queen's Hospital in Romford and the King George in Ilford.

Statistics indicate the number of violent incidents at both have doubled over the past three years, with 36 attacks in January 2021, rising to 75 for the same period in 2023.

Trust workers have been punched, been told to "go back to the jungle", and had their teeth broken by violent patients, according to the trust.

Nurse Yvonne Ihekwoakba said: "My patient was verbally abusive when I offered him his medication. I tried to calm him down.

"The next thing I knew I was punched in my stomach and landed on the floor. I was in A&E for several hours."

Security officer Mohammed Islam said: "I tripped taking a patient back to his room and he kicked me in the jaw.

"He broke my teeth, and I was bleeding.

"I found it challenging, both physically and mentally, to come back to work again."

Theo Kayode-Osiyemi, from the appointments team, said: "I have often been abused racially and called names that are not pleasant to hear or repeat.

"One day I was told to 'go to the jungle where I belong'."

Other measures to tackle the problem include an increased visibility of security staff and de-escalation training for employees.

A trust spokeswoman said the organisation was making it "more straightforward" for staff to ban an abusive patient from its hospitals "when it is clinically safe to do so".

Matthew Trainer, the trust's chief executive, said: "Our staff should not be shouted at, hit, or subjected to racist abuse while doing their job. It's happening more and more often to colleagues in our hospitals, and we are taking action to respond to their concerns.

"Our message couldn't be simpler: no abuse, no excuse."

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