Elderly responsible for half of NHS assaults, data shows

According to data compiled by NHS Protect, patients over the age of 75 are responsible for more than half of physical assaults on NHS staff in hospitals across England.

The study looked at thousands of incidents ranging from bites and pinches, to more serious attacks on medical staff. NHS Protect has suggested that the stress and confusion of a hospital stay may provide some explanation for the findings.

The figures showed that over-75s accounted for 57 per cent of violent incidents on wards between 2010 and 2015. The review is reportedly the most detailed ever study examining violence directed at NHS workers.

In its report, NHS Protect outlined that a high proportion of reported physical assaults by elderly patients reflects the challenges of dealing with older people coping with the confusion of a hospital stay, compounded by conditions such as dementia.

NHS Protect has called on staff to come forward and report every incident so that procedures can be changed to keep staff and patients as safe as possible.

In an interview with the BBC, David Dixon, from NHS Protect, commented: "The next step is for individual trusts to study our findings and identify what lessons they can learn for their own particular contexts, about where best to place their resources.

"And we continue to ask staff never to accept assault as 'just part of the job'. Every physical assault should be reported, in the established way."