About one in seven NHS staff in the last year experienced at least one incident of physical violence. That’s according to the latest NHS Staff Survey by some 760,000 people working in the NHS in autumn 2025. It’s thought to be the largest such survey in the world; roughly half of the National Health Service staff of 1.5m took part.
Some 14.47 per cent of staff who answered the survey said they experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, their family or other members of the public; the category by far most affected were ambulance workers; some 52pc had a violent incident. Overall, 0.75 per cent of staff said they experienced violence from managers; and 1.8 per cent from colleagues. Some 25pc said they experienced harassment or abuse from a patient, family or members of the public.
Dean Royles, Interim Chief Executive at NHS Employers, said that NHS leaders will have mixed feelings about the latest staff survey results overall which show that most indicators have remained similar to last year. He said: “It is of course distressing to see that staff continue to personally experience discrimination from patients and other members of the public. It is completely unacceptable that staff in the NHS continue to be subjected to racism at work. Sadly, these findings reflect the wider rise in racial hostility faced by communities over the past year. While we pride ourselves on having an ethnically diverse workforce drawn from across the UK and around the world, it is a mark of shame that incidents of racism increased at a time when the NHS is striving to be better employers.
โIt is also worrying to see that levels of unwanted sexual behaviour rose from the public despite a slight fall in incidents from staff. Every NHS Trust has now signed up to theย NHS sexual safety charterย and is implementing the actions it details.
โLevels of violence from the public have also worsened. Preventing and reducing violence is one of the areas to be included in the new Staff Standards framework to be introduced later this year as set out in the governmentโs Ten-Year Health Plan. NHS Employers has been working with health service unions, employers and the government to develop this framework to help ensure all staff have a good experience at work.”
Comments
Dr Ian Higginson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: โItโs deeply saddening that our staff across the NHS โ who come to work to every day to help people in need โ are experiencing violence and discrimination from patients and the public. Itโs disgraceful, appalling and so much more. Itโs totally and completely unacceptable and has no place in our health service.
โAll staff should all feel safe going to work to carry out the role they trained to do โ not fear they will be attacked, discriminated against, subjected to racism or have verbal abuse hurled towards them. It cannot be tolerated and needs to be called out, reported and escalated to the appropriate authorities.
โPatients who abuse staff should be held responsible for their actions, and we need to be careful that the current tendency towards increasing division in society doesnโt encourage or normalise attitudes and behaviours that are completely unacceptable. Itโs clear from the surveyโs findingsย that all of us โ government, politicians, healthcare leaders, colleagues and patients โ have more to do to ensure our workforce is looked after and supported.โ
Minister’s ‘zero tolerance’
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting speaking at trade union Unisonโs health conference in April 2025 described protecting staff from violence as ‘not an optional extra’ and promised (like predecessors) ‘zero tolerance for violence and harassment of NHS staff’. In its response to the survey results, Unison pointed out that employers have a legal duty to protect staff from any risk to their health or safety at work, ‘and must do more’.
And TfL
Violence against customer-facing staff is not only in hospitals. Transport for London (TfL) and Sir Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, held a Workโrelated Violence and Aggression (WVA) Summit. The London transport operator reports WVA incident numbers have remained stable over the past three years – with around 10,500 incidents in 2023/24 and an expected 10,800 in 2025/26. Fare evasion, ticket disputes and antisocial behaviour continue to be the leading triggers for abuse, TfL says.
