Buckshaw Village Surgery staff say they have reached 'crisis point' following week of verbal abuse

Speaking on the worrying trend, Aimee Mughal, Practice Manager of NM Health Innovations which operates Buckshaw Village Surgery and several other surgeries in the area, said: "We are sorry to report that there have been a series of incidents at our Buckshaw Surgery involving serious verbal abuse of staff and one particularly disturbing case where a patient physically forced their way into a GP's consulting room and refused to leave until they were tended to.

"We are approaching a crisis point and in all my many years working within the NHS I have never know the situation as serious as it is now with regards to the safety and wellbeing of our staff.

"Last week, a member of staff at one of our other local surgeries suffered a serious physical assault, causing severe upset and stress for her and for other members of staff and forcing us to increase our site security.

"And this week, we have experienced a series of incidents at our Buckshaw site where our staff have suffered verbal abuse, followed by a more serious incident where a patient physically forced their way into a GP’s room and refused to leave until they were attended to."

She added: "It’s clear many of these incidents are being fueled by social media comments, many of which are inflammatory and inaccurate.

"Our staff have worked throughout the pandemic, most of them regularly working extra hours, in very difficult circumstances.

"The NHS has also been severely stretched and I can say with 100 percent certainty that our staff are doing their very best to help every patient as much as possible and as a group we are making every effort to provide as many appointments as possible.

"Despite this, the abuse is worsening and has caused untold stress to our staff who are already under severe pressure, and I’m afraid it is time to say that enough is enough."

Echoing her sentiments Communications Officer for the surgery Tony Dawber said the abuse is getting worse.

"There have been several incidents over the week.

"We have had to employ security staff to make sure we have enough people on site so no-one is on their own."

"One staff member had a KFC bucket thrown at them. They were very shaken as it could've contained acid or anything."

Lancashire Police have been contacted for comment.