The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said that the government can tackle the rise in violence against NHS staff by taking action to reduce lengthy waits in A&E, ending corridor care and tackling chronic understaffing.

Freedom of Information requests to 89 trusts in England found that there were 4,054 incidences of physical violence against staff recorded in 2024, compared to 2,093 in 2019, a number that is almost double. Waits of more than 12 hours in A&E increased more than 20 times in the same period.

Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said: “Behind these shocking figures lies an ugly truth. Dedicated and hard-working nursing staff face rising violent attacks because of systemic failures that are no fault of their own. Every incident is unacceptable, but we need ministers and trust leaders to acknowledge some of the key underlying causes."

Senior charge nurse Rachelle said: "Nursing staff not only go to work underpaid and undervalued but now face a rising tide of violence. It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning. It's unarguably true that you can’t fix the health service when vital staff are too scared to even go into work.

"The government needs to do more than record the shocking levels of violence – it needs to reduce it. Measures to keep staff safe day-to-day are crucial, but the stark reality is that unless the government does something about lengthy waits, corridor care and understaffed nursing teams, more nursing staff will become victims of this utterly abhorrent behaviour.

"Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.”