Thousands of assaults have been reported within hospital and medical facilities across the Southern Trust area over the past five years with incidents in Craigavon Area Hospital alone last year equating to a rate of more than three a day!
And staff have also taken thousands of days off work – collectively more than 22 years – as a result of incidents where they have been the victim of, or alleged, workplace incidents.
Reported assaults at Craigavon Area Hospital – where physical contact was made – hit a new high in the financial year just ended.
A total of 1,143 incidents were recorded, with a further 494 reports of individuals being threatened, although not physically assaulted.
There were 37 reports of assault of a sexual nature, which includes sexual harassment and indecent exposure.
A further 154 reports of verbal abuse were made, with an additional 16 that were racial in nature.
The information has been made available in a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Southern Health Trust by Armagh I.
The number of reported assaults at Craigavon Area Hospital has risen year on year and peaked in 2025/26.
Collectively, there have been 3,335 reports of physical assaults since 2021/22 at Craigavon, with 418, 414, 552, 808 and 1,143 in each of the past five years.
There were 186 reports relating to sexual assaults in the same period, and 1,980 incidents of physical threat.
Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry also recorded incidents but not on the same scale.
There were 349 reports of physical contact for the whole of the past five years, and 51 relating to threats. In each year, there were less than five reports of a sexual nature.
At Lurgan Hospital, 279 reports of physical assault were reported over the past five years, the majority – 79 and 78 respectively – in the past two years. There were 55 incidents reported of threat, involving no physical contact.
Lurgan also recorded 66 incidents involving verbal abuse, while sexual-related reports were made in three of the last five years only and each year numbered less than five.
There was a total of 103 physical assaults reported at South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon over the past five years and 37 more involving threat.
There were 143 physical assaults reported at St Luke’s Hospital in Armagh and 67 involving threats in the first two years of the time period considered. Those other years requested returned a number less than five. There were 36 reports of verbal abuse at the Loughgall Road hospital too.
For facilities classified as falling within the independent and voluntary sector, physical assault reports amounted to 651, with 160 of those in the past year.
A further 244 reports of physical threat were noted, and 39 of sexual-related incidents, including harassment and indecent exposure in the past three years. In the first two years of the time period considered, the number of such reports was less than five.
A further 173 reports of verbal abuse were made in the independent and voluntary sector, and 18 of verbal abuse with racial content in the past two years.
In a community setting, actual assaults totalled 2,051, with physical threat adding a further 384 reports over the past five years. There were also 147 reports of a sexual-related nature and 857 involving verbal abuse.
The Southern Trust was unable to confirm details of the collective total of assaults recorded at all facilities, as it said a single incident may involve more than one assault or alleged assault and may involve one or multiple staff members.
“Reviewing each incident to determine this would exceed the time limits set for FOI requests,” according to the Trust.
The information provided detailed the “number of incidents which relate to the violence and aggression incidents recorded in SHSCT”.
The incidents detailed are those reported on the ‘Datix Risk Management System’, which includes incidents coded as “inappropriate/aggressive behaviour” involving patients, visitors and staff.
There were 69 incidents reported between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2025 of “inappropriate/aggressive behaviour” towards staff at Craigavon Area Hospital by patients, visitors or other staff on the Datix coded system, which included both founded and alleged assaults.
It was not possible to provide a record of how many assaults on staff were actually reported to PSNI at all Trust venues in each of the past five years, as “this information is not recorded centrally” and retrieving it manually would exceed the cost allowed for FOI requests.
The figures provided also detail the number of calendar days lost across the Trust’s estate due to episodes of sickness where the reason given was ‘Untoward Incident/Violence at Work’ or ‘Aggression/Assault’ each year.
Due to the information on the HRPTS portal, a total of 8,098 days were lost – which equates to more than 22 years – since 2021/22. The numbers peaked after Covid, with 1,947 days lost in 2023/34 and 1,818 and 1,701 in each of the following two 12-month periods.
According to the Trust: “There could be other episodes of sickness absence due to incidents at work during the period that haven’t been recorded as such on HRPTS and therefore are not included in the figures, and it is impossible for us to indicate the extent of this potential under-representation of absence due to assaults.”
Figures exclude Bank Staff and details are “based on episodes of sickness, therefore mutliple postholders absent across all posts held will be included more than once in the figures”.
For staff who have been the victims of assault, services available include “psychological debrief for individuals/groups affected by workplace incidents, which may include assaults to staff”, as well as “supportive/reflective sessions” for those “contending with workplace challenges which may include assault from service users”.
Individual psychological therapy, such as EMDR, is also available for staff who have been subject to assault whilst at work.
