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Three quarters of A&E staff witness violence and aggression at work at least once a week
Around three in four UK Emergency Department staff have told the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that they experience or witness violence and aggression in their department on a daily or weekly basis. That’s according to new survey data, revealed as part of the launch of RCEM’s Safe to Care campaign. “Safe to Care” aims to highlight the levels of violence and aggression that healthcare staff in Emergency Medicine continue to face while at work. The College surveyed over 2,000 ED staff, with 96% of respondents saying they experienced violence or aggression in their ED from patients or members of the public. More than three quarters (73%) said it was a weekly, or even daily, occurrence and around two thirds said the incidents they experienced were of a discriminatory nature. One anonymous resident doctor told the survey:
“Working in the ED, you brace yourself for a lot, but nothing truly prepares you for direct, hateful verbal abuse, especially when it’s racially charged.” Meanwhile, an ED consultant told the survey that they had been kicked in the face by an aggressive patient lying on a trolley. Just four per cent told RCEM that they always felt safe working in ED, and barely more than half (57%) felt safe most of the time.
RCEM warned that, if left to continue, the impact this will have on the workforce could be devastating for Emergency Medicine, with 75% of staff reporting short-term stress and anxiety, 40% experiencing burnout, 14% taking time off work – and 28%
violence and aggression is crucial for the wellbeing of staff, whose dedication to the NHS is all too frequently being repaid in kicks, punches and abhorrent verbal abuse. “We know that long waits and crowding are
experiencing long-term stress or anxiety. Many staff said they had little confidence that reporting incidents will lead to action, with fewer than half (41%) of staff who made a report saying their Trust took ‘meaningful action’. Dr. Ian Higginson, President of the RCEM, said: “No one should go to work fearing or, worse, expecting, to be attacked, intimidated or abused. Nor should they lack confidence that their employers have their backs, or that the judicial system will kick in. Yet, that’s the reality faced by the majority of my colleagues in EDs across the country. “They often do not feel safe to care for patients. It is an appalling state of affairs which is contributing towards many people seriously considering whether Emergency Medicine – or even healthcare in general – is for them. Tackling
one of the main drivers of this, but that is not the fault of staff. That’s on our governments. Every hour of every day, our Emergency Medicine teams are there for patients. It’s time staff received the respect and safety they deserve.” In a new briefing, RCEM is calling on government in the four nations, and NHS leaders, to make Emergency Departments safe to care by: l Preventing violence and abuse before it occurs – starting with the eradication of long waits to be seen, crowding and corridor care, while strengthening security standards.
l Supporting staff through better training, reporting, follow-up, and links with the police.
l Improving accountability of organisations to protect and support NHS staff, with better working across systems to ensure perpetrators face justice.
Dr. Catherine Hayhurst, co-chair of the RCEM Quality in Emergency Care Committee, said: “Anyone who works in ED knows that violence and aggression towards healthcare staff have become normalised. That must end.” View the briefing at:
https://rcem.ac.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2026/09/RCEM_Safe_to_Care_ ED_Violence_Aggression_092026.pdf
Fight Fibrin Sheath Campaign aims to improve patients’ lives
An international coalition of vascular access surgeons, nephrologists, researchers and industry partners have launched the Fight Fibrin Sheath (FFS) campaign, a clinician-led action group working collaboratively to advance research, education and innovation relating to fibrin sheath formation, and to improve vascular access outcomes for dialysis patients worldwide. Fibrin sheath is a near-universal complication
of dialysis catheters; a fibrous, protein-based build-up that begins to form around a central venous catheter (CVC) within hours of insertion in almost every patient. Left unaddressed, it restricts blood flow, triggers repeated clinical intervention and shortens the working life of the catheters that hundreds of thousands of dialysis patients rely on to stay alive. First documented more than 40 years ago, it has long been managed as a routine, unavoidable side effect of catheter use rather than
treated as a problem that clinical practice and device technology should be solving. Nick Inston, Consultant Vascular Access
Surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, and spokesperson for the Fight Fibrin Sheath campaign, explains how all the available data points to a glaring opportunity for the renal and dialysis community to address: “Fibrin sheath is a massive issue that no-one is talking about, hence our desire to start a campaign to tackle it once and for all. Fibrin sheath develops in 80–100% of CVCs within the first week of insertion. This directly affects the 50–75% of dialysis patients who begin treatment on a catheter, the majority of whom still need one for their primary vascular access six or more months later.
“But fibrin sheath isn’t a new phenomenon.
Recent research among clinicians worldwide found that fibrin sheath is the dominant failure mode
in catheter care, and our collective confidence in preventing it is lower than for any other complication we face. The harsh truth is that CVCs have been vilified despite their continued importance. It’s hugely frustrating and patients should be angry. We say it’s time for the industry to start looking at catheters again. The current situation is unacceptable and why this campaign exists.” The FFS campaign brings clinicians, researchers, patient advocates and device manufacturers together around a shared, evidence-led agenda: to fund and conduct further research into fibrin sheath prevention, to raise awareness of its impact among patients and policymakers, and to press device manufacturers to step up innovation efforts. Clinicians can sign the FFS pledge. Full details of the FFS campaign and its goals are available at:
www.fightfibrinsheath.com
October 2026 I
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