More than 295,000 incidents of physical violence and aggression by patients against NHS staff were recorded by 212 trusts in England between 2022 and 2025, according to a Guardian analysis of freedom of information requests. The number of violent incidents rose from 91,175 in 2022-23 to 104,079 in 2024-25, equivalent to about 285 cases reported daily in the most recent year.
Healthcare unions have warned of a spike in assaults over Christmas and the New Year. A man attacked and injured six staff and patients with a crowbar at Newton Community Hospital in Merseyside last week; he was arrested and detained under the Mental Health Act. Prof Nicola Ranger, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, described the situation as a 'national emergency for staff safety'.
Sexual assaults and harassment against staff also rose sharply, with nearly 24,000 alleged incidents recorded over three years, compared with about 20,000 in the previous five. Some female staff reported being sexually assaulted while providing treatment, while others witnessed patients deliberately ejaculating on nurses in A&E. 'Working in the NHS is becoming increasingly dangerous,' Ranger said.
Doctors and nurses reported attacks with knives and other weapons, and damage to rooms and equipment costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. The British Medical Association attributed the spike to anger over long waits, distrust of medicine fuelled by Covid conspiracy theories, and a rise in racism against staff of colour. Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the BMA council, said all NHS staff were 'living in increasing fear of harassment, abuse, violence'.
Frontline staff said entire hospital wards were increasingly being shut down to hold violent mentally unwell or emotionally dysregulated teenagers in isolation for weeks or months, due to a lack of appropriate specialist care. One risk manager at a large NHS trust in northern England said: 'Out of a year, we probably have six or seven months where we have at least one ward shut down completely for one patient who is so violent there can’t be other patients on the ward with them.'
