Over the next four years more than 70 000 frontline NHS staff across England will learn how to defuse potentially violent situations under the health service's largest ever training programme.
Announcing the training at a conference earlier this week, NHS security chief Jim Gee said that trusts may even be obliged to set aside a proportion of their budget for the training—to prevent it becoming a "tick-box" exercise.
"There will be secretary of state directions in place to ensure that NHS organisations do what's necessary to ensure that people and property are protected," said Mr Gee, chief executive of the Counter Fraud and Security Management Service. "We're also looking at whether we need a legal requirement so NHS organisations have to ensure that an appropriate percentage of their budget is there for conflict resolution training."
By the end of 2004, more than 10 000 staff should have done the training, following a syllabus agreed by the Health and Safety Executive, the BMA, and other unions. A separate syllabus will be devised for staff working in mental health.
The news follows a BMA report last month (18 October, p 889) that found that half of all UK doctors experience aggression from patients, including verbal abuse, threats, and physical assaults.
Under its raft of anti-violence measures, the NHS is to create an England-wide, legal definition of violence, launching a central computerised assaults register and making each trust designate an employee to be responsible for investigating such incidents and a board member accountable for the trust's record on combating aggression.