Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the grassroots campaigning organisation the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), told The BMJ that doctors continued to receive abuse despite “risking their lives since March 2020.” In a recent survey, DAUK’s members reported verbal and physical abuse including insults, racism, death threats, and violence. One respondent told the campaign, “Physical abuse is a regular part of being an emergency medicine doctor. I have been hit and bruised by many patients for a variety of reasons. All staff have a story to tell, and it’s rare that the patients ever have to face any consequences.”
“It is not enough simply to clap once a week for NHS staff,” as the public were doing in the first lockdown of 2020, says Batt-Rawden, DAUK president. “We have to create a protected workplace that doesn’t leave them at risk of abuse.”
Read the full article here: https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n739
