Health chiefs have been accused of failing to protect staff, with abusive patients angry at Covid-hit GP services leaving workers “in tears”.
In December, bosses at one of Wick’s two medical practices spoke out about the verbal abuse and “derogatory comments” their administration team was being bombarded with on a daily basis.
The news from Riverview, within Wick Medical Centre, prompted NHS Highland’s chief executive to speak out and pledge her support to all affected workers.
Pam Dudek said: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to verbal and physical abuse directed toward our staff and we are investigating this as a matter of urgency.”
But it is alleged the health board has failed to take any action since, with problems still occurring regularly.
Angry patients seen ‘ranting and raving’
Patients not complying with a zero tolerance approach to abuse have been warned they can be struck from the practice list.
But the town’s two clinics, Riverview and the Pearson Practice, both share the same premises on Martha Terrace.
It means staff affected by abusive behaviour may still have to see or interact with the problem patients.
One staff member, who did not want to be named, said: “With Covid and phone appointments there have been some patients frustrated about access to GPs and services, which is kind of understandable.
“But, at the same time, we’re absolutely working our socks off to try and maintain these things.
“We had an incident where a patient was removed from the list because he was shouting and swearing, ranting and raving, and the receptionist was in tears.
“And then the health board assigned the patient back to the other practice in the same building – so that was not really ideal.”
‘Broken promises’
They added: “In December, Pam Dudek said this behaviour’s not acceptable and that they were going to do an investigation and sort it all out.
“But there’s not been an investigation – they’ve not done anything.
“You see a lot of things from NHS Highland about caring for staff, and there’s a wellbeing email they send out, but it just seems like a tick-box exercise.
“They say the right things but they don’t do anything.
“It would be good if they held up their promises but, a lot of the time, it feels like we’re being taken for granted.”
A spokeswoman for NHS Highland said, in the first instance, situations regarding abusive patients are dealt with at a local level – looking at what happened, why and how it can improve.
She said, after a review, it was determined the incident raised in December had been “resolved” with no further action required.
Help for staff affected by such scenarios can also be made available, she added.
The spokeswoman said: “While we cannot comment on individual cases for reasons of confidentiality, in instances where a patient has been aggressive it may be necessary for a patient to be transferred to another practice, or for them to be accompanied to future appointments.
“Depending on the circumstances, training and support for staff in dealing with violence and aggression may also be appropriate.”