Bullying and harassment ‘will not be tolerated towards Sherwood colleagues’

Posted Thursday, January 21, 2021 11:37 AM

Bullying and harassment ‘will not be tolerated towards Sherwood colleagues’

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is stamping out abuse towards hospital colleagues from patients and visitors by taking a ‘no tolerance’ approach.

In November 2020, the Trust launched an anti-bullying campaign with the Mid-Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Partnership. However, since this campaign launched, the Trust has seen a small increase in unacceptable and threatening verbal and physical abuse from a minority of visitors, partners and patients towards colleagues at Sherwood.

A further anti-aggression campaign has been introduced in the Trust’s hospitals and online this week, with its purpose to remind people that aggressive behaviour towards colleagues will not be accepted or tolerated.

Richard Mitchell, Chief Executive at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, says: “We will not tolerate any abuse, bullying and harassment towards Sherwood colleagues. There is no excuse for this behaviour in any of our hospitals.

“We have put simple measures in place which we are all required to comply with, in order for us to protect our colleagues, patients and visitors and to minimise the transmission of Covid-19.

“The huge majority of people are behaving well, but sadly a minority are letting themselves and others down. In years to come, when those people are asked ‘what did you do during the pandemic,’ I hope they reflect and say ‘you know what, I got it wrong – I spent my time taking photographs of nurses, putting hurtful comments up on Facebook and I verbally abused midwives who asked me to put a face mask on.’

“We will keep you safe, but if you behave like this, you are not welcome in our hospitals and you will be escorted from our hospitals by our security team. Please treat our colleagues with kindness. We are doing our best in this current situation to continue to look after you, your loved ones and our local community.”

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