A Kent GP has been admitted to hospital after being stabbed in the arm, the latest in a series of attacks against general practice staff.
Police were called to Barnard Health Centre in Sidcup on 23 May and arrested a man in his 60s on suspicion of attempted murder. The doctor, in his 50s, was taken to a south London hospital, where his injury is not thought to be life threatening.
Commenting on the attack, Michelle Drage, chief executive of Londonwide Local Medical Committees, which represents local general practices, said, “This is deeply sad and distressing for the GP involved, their family, the practice, and its patients. Although we don’t yet have all the details about this case, for some time practices have been reporting that abuse continues to increase, and many feel exposed and unsupported.”
The attack occurred on the same day that the annual conference of local medical committees in Newport, south Wales, called for tougher sanctions for patients who perpetrate violence against GPs and their teams and for more support to recognise the surge in incidents occurring in practices.1 A BMJ investigation in 2022 found that the number of violent incidents at UK general practices recorded by police forces had almost doubled over the previous five years.2
Drage said Londonwide LMCs have been working on guidance for practices on how to manage and de-escalate aggressive behaviour among patients, and this will be published in the coming weeks.
“But there is only so much practices can do,” she said. “They need the support of commissioners in removing aggressive patients to properly resourced special allocation schemes and a timely response from local police at the point staff or patients feel threatened.”
In October 2021 NHS England committed itself to a “zero tolerance” approach to abuse of staff who provide NHS services. But Drage said the latest attack in Sidcup, and other recent events, showed that this had clearly not been delivered.
Earlier in May a man was arrested outside a GP surgery in Stoke on Trent after an incident involving a bow and arrow. In April three practices in north Lincolnshire had to close after police warned they had received intelligence of a threat. And in January a man was charged with criminal damage and abuse after smashing windows with a hammer at a practice in Bristol.