Violent attacks on GPs have DOUBLED in the past five years

VIOLENT attacks on GPs have doubled in the past five years, a study has found.

Police recorded 1,068 aggressive incidents when patients chased appointments last year – compared to 586 in 2017.

1

Officers were called to 182 assaults that caused bodily harm, compared with 95 five years ago.

Cases of stalking and harassment have tripled to 223, the British Medical Journal survey found.

Some practices have built-in safety gates and panic buttons.

According to a survey, nine out of ten OR employees were also verbally abused.
Two operations were flared this year.

dr Richard Van Mellaerts, GP in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, said: “We appreciate patients’ frustration and anger at delays in their treatment, but that frustration needs to be channeled to holding governments accountable, and not be left out at their GPs and practice staff.

“We had to call the police several times in the past year.”

The Department of Health condemned all violence and ill-treatment of NHS workers and said the latest laws doubled the maximum penalty for assaulting emergency workers.