19:29, 20 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
![\"Stock](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/540007343_1096254695962543_3047674152799242869_n.jpg\")
Stock image(Image: Northern Health and Social Care Trust)<\/p>\n
The Christmas period can be a busy and stressful time for many people, including healthcare<\/a> workers.<\/p>\n The Northern Trust has asked people<\/a> to be respectful of all their staff when communicating with them and to show understanding in their interactions. Alarming figures for the past five years show that were more than 6,000 attacks on Northern Health and Social Care Trust staff.<\/p>\n Sara Smyth, a clinical sister in Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department, said: \u201cWhile the vast majority of patients using health services are respectful and appreciative towards staff, there is a worrying increase in abusive behaviour. In fact, the number of attacks on staff has increased in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Man “fearful” after being beaten unconscious in two attacks in a month<\/a>READ MORE: NI Health and Social Care Trust spent over \u00a325m in five months on agency staff<\/a><\/p>\n “We recognise that some of our patients have complex health needs, and we understand that this can sometimes affect how they communicate or behave. But many of the incidents we experience aren\u2019t because of that. A lot of the time it is just unacceptable behaviour, especially at this time of year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that people can become frustrated when they\u2019ve been waiting a long time, we unfortunately see it almost every day. However, when people are abusive or aggressive, it doesn\u2019t just impact us. It means we often have to step away from what we\u2019re doing and sometimes call on another colleague for extra support. All of that makes the wait even longer for every single patient.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to look after people, that\u2019s why we\u2019re here, but we need the public\u2019s support to do that. The last thing any of our staff need is abuse. Our staff are dedicated professionals who come to work each day to care for our community. We are asking the public to support and show respect to our teams so they can focus on delivering the best possible care, especially when services are under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n The Northern Trust has been trialling the use of body-worn cameras at Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department since September. The trial is aimed at reducing incidences of violence and aggression towards healthcare staff, and enhancing safety for patients. Initial indications suggest that the trial has had positive outcomes for both staff and patients.<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage<\/strong> here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trial is aimed at reducing incidences of violence and aggression towards healthcare staff, and enhancing safety for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[35745,105,4348,138544,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-645223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-northern-trust","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115754734548646270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}