ARTICLE HEADLINE
Zero Tolerance
Like most NHS organisations, Larwood Health Partnership have a zero tolerance policy towards abuse of our team. We appreciate that healthcare is a subject very close to people's hearts, but this is no excuse for abusing our hardworking staff who do their best to help you.
We ran an internal survey in July and encouraged our staff to speak up when they received abuse from patients, and some of the comments that were submitted were very concerning.
Our staff have had to deal with:-
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Shouting
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Intimidating behaviour
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Verbal Abuse
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Being called a "Gestapo officer",
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Being told "No wonder so many of your patients die"
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Being told "If anything happens with his leg its your fault"
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"if you’re going to make my life hard, I'll make your's hard and see how you like it"
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On one occasion last month it took 4 members of the team to deal with 1 angry patient.
When a staff member gets shouted at or verbally abused, they often need to speak to their team leader or line manager for support, some need time to reflect and on occasions some have even gone home as it has made them physically sick.
We take this policy very seriously and will take any action we deem necessary to protect our staff. This includes reporting serious incidents to the police or removing patients from our practice list.
The vast majority of our patients are kind and courteous to our team, and we thank you sincerely.