There has been a 480% rise in racially motivated assaults on health staff in the last five years, it has emerged.
In 2020, there were just five racially motivated assaults recorded on health staff.
Last year, this figure rose to 29 racially motivated assaults.
Health Minister Tom Binet explained that the rise in incidents by may down to efforts within his department to increase awareness and reporting of such incidents – including an anti-racism campaign last year.
Responding to a written question from Deputy Max Andrews, Deputy Binet also noted that inpatient mental health services accounted for 45% of verbal abuse and 72% of physical assaults in 2023.
He added that the electronic incident recording system has “undergone a number of changes” between 2020 and 2024 which means there are “some data quality limitations”.
“The data for 2020 and 2021 must be considered in the context of reduced patient numbers, owing to pandemic restrictions and significantly reduced clinical activity,” the Minister said.
Deputy Andrews also asked for data regarding how many assaults resulted in a prosecution and a conviction.
The Health Minister said his department does not hold those figures – but instead provided information about the number of incidents that resulted in police being called.
Last year, 72 assaults on health staff resulted in police being called – compared to 51 during the previous year.
The peak was in 2022, when there were 93 incidents that resulted in police being called.
Last year, Express revealed that the numbers of recorded incidents of verbal, physical and racial abuse against Health staff had all increased since 2020.
And it was stated in a Health Advisory Board meeting in 2023 that racist incidents between Health staff members are “not unusual”.
A report authored by Director of Culture, Engagement and Wellbeing, Dr Cheryl Power, and Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health lead Washington Gwatidzo found “evidence that staff frequently decline policy guidance to report racial abuse to police”.
Health pledged to produce an anti-racist statement following the publication of the report.
