WRN report on sex attacks in hospitals

Bring back middle aged matron dragons....

I've long been convinced that a minority of doctors and, for that matter nurses, are in the job because it gives them access to vulnerable people. Keep an eye open in the media for stories about doctors convicted of raping female patients - once you're alert to it, you'll start seeing them everywhere.

Although women are far less likely to be sexual predators, I do think that some women go into health care so they can bully and harm patients, unfortunately.

@aweegc I’m so sorry for what happened to you

There’s a danger in pushing for single sex wards, that women’s care and standards would suffer.

Hospital wards here are based on the equipment and expertise - if you’ve a problem with your heart you need to be on the ward with that specialism.

If you have two wards, isn’t it inevitable that the latest, greatest cutting edge equipment goes to the male side? Or do you not upgrade because there isn’t money for two life saving devices in this years budget? Or if there’s a spare bed on the men’s ward but not on the women’s you turn away a patient you could potentially save?

I don’t know what the solution is. I think there was a lot to be said for the days when middle aged matron dragons ruled over their wards and terrified all but the most senior consultants.

But we need a solution that protects the vulnerable and holds up under strained budgets and austerity.

Thanks for share tokens.

Women-only hospitals were deliberately phased out. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital was forced to take male midwives in the 1970s.

This is the answer.

I remember Lib fems insisting on bringing in random men to maternity wards overnight. Another irrational luxury beliefs.

Interview about rape stats and CJS process, Luke Gittos interviewed on Triggernometry - and a response to Gittos:

Is Rape Culture a Dangerous Myth?
19 April 2020

Luke Gittos is a solicitor practising criminal law. He is also legal editor for Spiked and author of two books:

• Human Rights - Illusory Freedom: Why We Should Repeal the Human Rights Act
• Why Rape Culture is a Dangerous Myth: From Steubenville to Ched Evans

Rape culture and the crisis of intimacy
A new book warns of the threats posed by the obsession with rape.
28 Aug 2015
https://www.spiked-online.com/2015/08/28/rape-culture-and-the-crisis-of-intimacy/

Denying rape culture: A response to Luke Gittos
Stiebert, J (2018) Denying rape culture: A response to Luke Gittos. Women's Studies Journal, 32 (1/2). pp. 63-72. ISSN 1173-6615

Abstract
The concept of rape culture has been firmly established in feminist discourse since the 1970s. This paper examines and challenges the arguments of rape culture deniers, with particular emphasis on one prominent UK representative, Luke Gittos, author of Why rape culture is a dangerous myth: From Steubenville to Ched Evans (2015). This article argues that Gittos’ case affirms rather than denies the toxicity and ubiquity of rape culture.

https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/138714/8/Johanna%20Stiebert%20FINAL.pdf

I work in the NHS (in a community role) and my Trust took bloody forever getting my ID card done - to the point I ended up raising it as high up as I could as a raging security risk to get the bloody thing issued. We worked around it with me emailing homes from my NHS mail and then backing my identity up via other ID - but it is bloody terrifying just how much people will automatically trust you if you're wearing a healthcare tunic or scrubs.

As soon as someone - and I'm afraid to say it, but it largely applies to males - appears safe, either because of their job or environment, they actually become potentially some of the most dangerous. This applies to church leaders, police etc but with the people who are actively involved in saving our lives, this "cloak of safety" becomes even stronger.

This.

It's not that the Police are being blamed, it's that it's just the easiest way to get at the stats for reported rapes and sexual assaults.

Then it will be possible to follow up with hospitals to find out what they have on record. Reports to the Police should be recorded as Serious Untoward Incidents.

There may be others not reported to the police. Or reported by the victim and denied by the hospital - as with the woman who was raped and the hospital told the police it could not have happened because there were "no men on the ward". There was a male patient but staff had been told that they had to protect his "privacy" as one of those women with penises. CCTV a year later confirmed that the rape had taken place.

I expect it'll get even worse with staff shortages. I went to visit a friend recently who was in one of the newer hospitals with private rooms- fab for privacy and stuff but I was there for 2 hours and not one member of staff came to check in; the door couldn't be locked and it wasn't anywhere near the reception desk or any sort of regularly manned area. Anyone could have gone in, I felt very vulnerable even as a visitor who wasn't stuck to the bed. Obviously wards with curtain cubicles and especially mixed wards have their own risks; but having scarce staff gives more opportunity.

Share Token for The Times

Hospitals report 33 rapes and sex assaults a week
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e13c7618-dcb9-11ed-a0a8-657f9e54fc6a?shareToken=0626f0cf4d7a01a6fa47eb9dea69a397

That's really interesting, @Felix125 . It appears to be completely bonkers.
Is this why all sorts of nonsense is now being recorded as 'crimes'? Like, hurty feelings. And stickers.
One wonders who instructed this change to be made?
Perhaps this is an 'unintended consequence' of a well-intentioned change.
Maybe another category needs to be created for dubious/dodgy/trivial reports of crime?
Presumably this instruction would need to come from the 'top'. Whoever they are.

nilsmousehammer
As to having 'no say' - you may not have been asked your preference on the assumption if you hadn't raised a need to be met there was no need to meet it. Did you state it? How did they respond to your request?

Very probably. I didn't raise it and i was not asked as to my preference. It was just the assumption that it wonder bother me either way.

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2023%2F04%2F17%2Fthousands-of-hospital-sex-attacks-reported-to-police-figure%2F

WRN CAMPAIGN: #StopHospitalRapes #NotAPlaceOfSafety

Please search for Social Media posts with these hashtags and use them to help to get the word out!

#StopHospitalRapes #NotAPlaceOfSafety

-----

WRN Pinned Tweet
https://twitter.com/WomensRightsNet/status/1647854106105597953

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/WomensRightsNetwork
eg post
https://www.facebook.com/WomensRightsNetwork/posts/pfbid08i8esM8sL8jpumtFwh7kHBNyASiSW4UjKfS1Baop1KthmgWHFiHdAXPRtppEzmgMl

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/womensrightsnetworkuk/

----

WRN Hospital Report and Press Release
https://www.womensrights.network/hospital-report

Thread of Press Coverage
https://twitter.com/_preston_writes/status/1647852240328171520

My mistake for not reading the date of the article but just reading the headline of "last three years".

Wonder what it is now that the girls facilities are mixed sex.

100% thus. Surely this is an NHS scandal and they should be looking into it. Not sure why the Police appear to be getting blamed for the NHS failing to keep their hospitals even vaguely safe

Sorry I will explain my reasoning here: if there is at least one rape in schools per day in this country (pre-pandemic figures) then as an ex-teacher, you got to think where on earth are these occurring. As with hospitals, most people would think you are fairly visible and safe.
Since these figures, there will be more and more mixed sexed toilets in schools. Mixed sexed toilets usually have full length doors (I think as everyone realises there’s a problem with mixed sexed toilets) but they don’t follow it through and realise that you are now creating small private enclosed mix-sex places. Tbh this is the extreme end and there are other things that are more likely to happen that mean full height doors are dangerous: self-harming, drug taking, other sex assaults, epileptic seizures, fainting through illness, head injuries, strokes. As a teacher and parent I have seen a lot.

Back to hospitals. They have a lot of toilets that are disabled-type and are private. I do not know where these crimes are taking place but it would seem that could be a possibility.

This is one of the scariest things I can imagine. Being either a patient or a visitor to a hospital always fills me with a sense of vulnerability, although they are busy places they can also be very quiet, desolate and intimidating.

I was sent to the wrong ward at 4am one Sunday morning after attending urgent care, the ward I went to was along a maze of corridors, i got there and it was dark, no one about, I got lost amongst the many cubby offices and desks. It was actually really unsettling and now it feels even more worrying.

It is utterly heartbreaking how much the people who are meant to protect us just don’t give a shit, not even enough to record the data correctly.

Should I ever find myself as an in patient I will be taking a rape alarm and spray. OK they won’t necessarily stop something happening but it’ll help me feel safer. I’d also provide one to family or friends.

Here you go

digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/1310/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/1310/pub/1310/page/29/article/NaN

As to having 'no say' - you may not have been asked your preference on the assumption if you hadn't raised a need to be met there was no need to meet it. Did you state it? How did they respond to your request?