Figures show abuse endured by UHG staff

Staff at Galway’s busiest hospital reported being abused by patients or visitors on 23 occasions in eight months.

The figures – obtained by the Galway City Tribune using Freedom of Information Act – show the extent of the assaults, both verbal and physical, perpetrated on nurses, doctors and other staff at University Hospital Galway (UHG).

In total there were 23 incidents of staff being abused by visitors or staff during the eight months between April and December of last year.

Figures for the full year were not available as digital recording of abusive incidents at the acute hospital only commenced in April 2013.

Of the 23 incidents, a dozen involved staff who were physically abused by visitors or patients, and a dozen involved verbal abuse.

There was one incident recorded at UHG that involved both physical and verbal abuse.

According to the information released under FOI, there were no incidents of racial abuse recorded during that time.

Only four of the incidents of abuse related to UHG’s Emergency Department, the remainder related to the acute hospital.

Bill Maher, Chief Executive Officer of West North West Hospitals Group, said the figure of 23 incidents of abuse does not include those that occurred within the mental health services.

“Given the numbers of staff and patients attending UHG, the number of interactions between staff and patients are extraordinarily high and the vast majority of these interactions are entirely appropriate.

“There are more than 3,000 staff at UHG. The numbers of recorded incidents show a relatively small number of incidences that occur in terms of verbal or physical abuse.

“Where any such incident does occur, the hospital takes it very seriously and deals with it accordingly depending on the level of abuse involved,” Mr Maher confirmed in a statement.

He said the system used to record such incidents prior to April 2013 was a paper-based incident reporting system.

In April 2013, the hospital replaced all paper-based reporting systems with an electronic system known as QPulse, said Mr Maher.