Violence against nurses hit a record high amid A&E chaos, says RCN

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The Royal College of Nursing highlights a sharp rise in physical attacks on A&E staff from 2,093 incidents in 2019 to 4,054 in 2024 and urges the government to make urgent changes

Amid growing pressures on the NHS, the Royal College of Nursing is warning of a record rise in attacks on nurses working in A&E. Long waits, overcrowded departments, and staff shortages are creating a dangerous environment for both patients and staff, prompting urgent calls for government action.

Violence against nurses has almost doubled

Freedom of Information requests to 89 trusts in England found that there were 4,054 incidences of physical violence against nurses recorded in 2024, compared to 2,093 in 2019 – almost double.

Simultaneously, RCN analysis shows that waits of more than 12 hours in A&E increased by more than 20 times in the same period.

Now, RCN is warning government ministers that failing to reduce violence in health care settings will see the Westminster government’s 10-Year Health Plan, which aims to improve the quality and safety of healthcare, ‘fail completely’if the issue of violence against nurses is not urgently addressed.

Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said: ‘Behind these shocking figures lies an ugly truth. Dedicated and hard-working nursing staff face rising violent attacks because of systemic failures such as long waits, overcrowded departments, and staff shortages that are no fault of their own. Every incident is unacceptable, but we need ministers and trust leaders to acknowledge these key underlying causes.’

Nurses are being attacked every hour in England

The rise in violence against nurses has escalated to a point where, in England, a member of staff working in A&E is being attacked every hour. For example, at a Bristol hospital, incidents of violence against staff almost doubled between 2019 and 2024. The number of reported attacks increased from 83 to 152. While at a hospital in Kent, incidents rose by more than 500% from 13 in 2019 to 89 in 2024.

One senior A&E nurse, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has witnessed the harrowing effects of this violence. She has seen her colleagues punched, kicked, and even had a gun pointed at them. She herself has been spat at by a patient and threatened with an acid attack. The trauma of these experiences led her to develop depression and anxiety, forcing her to take a secondment in research as a break from the profession.

“The violence I saw made me more fearful outside work. I saw how volatile people can be,” she said.

Senior charge nurse Rachelle said that things have got so bad in her hospital, “even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait”.

Nicola continued: “Nursing staff not only go to work underpaid and undervalued, but now face a rising tide of violence. It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning. It’s unarguably true that you can’t fix the health service when vital staff are too scared to even go into work.

“The government needs to do more than record the shocking levels of violence – it needs to reduce it. Measures to keep staff safe day-to-day are crucial. Still, the stark reality is that unless the government does something about lengthy waits, corridor care and understaffed nursing teams, more nursing staff will become victims of this utterly abhorrent behaviour.

“Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.”

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