Abuse lawyer, Elizabeth Duncan, has been featured in a Daily Mail article about the growing problem of sexual assault is hospital.
The newspaper tells the story of a 77-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted by a male patient while in a Midlands hospital. Following the attack a nurse told her, “This sort of thing happens all the time.”
That nurse was correct. Thousands of sexual attacks occur in healthcare settings every year.
In an academic review of NHS hospitals, extremely high levels of sexual abuse were identified, with 33 rapes and sexual assaults committed in hospitals in England and Wales every week. It is thought that these figures are likely to be a gross underestimate of the true extent of the problem.
Separate research by the BMJ supports these findings, as does data from police reports which identify 180 cases of rape of children. The BMJ investigation found that patients are the main perpetrators, and the main victims.
The report concluded that the alarming frequency of these assaults indicates a systemic failure in safeguarding within the NHS. Frustratingly, the NHS has been slow to introduce dedicated policies on safeguarding patients, staff, and visitors from sexual assault in hospital. This is despite NHS England recommending that all trusts adopt such policies.
Elizabeth, who heads up our abuse team, was invited by the Daily Mail to comment on the issue. She is regularly contacted by patients and staff looking for legal advice after having been sexually assaulted in a healthcare environment. Elizabeth told the newspaper that it is an increasing problem and highlighted the fact that patients in psychiatric units are particularly vulnerable. ‘They tend to be there for longer’ she said. ‘There is more opportunity for grooming, and there is more opportunity for offences. Plus, of course, those patients are particularly vulnerable in a way that someone in A&E with a broken leg is not.’