WRN report on sex attacks in hospitals

[ArabeIIaScott]

https://www.womensrights.network/hospital-report

'More than 6500 rapes and sexual assaults - some against children under 13 - have been committed in hospitals in England and Wales over nearly four years

Only 265 people (4.1 per cent) are known to have been charged for these offences.

The horrifying statistics - covering the lockdown period when hospitals were said to be more secure - reveal that at least 2088 rapes and 4451 sexual assaults (total: 6539) in hospitals were recorded by police forces in the UK since January 2019. One in 7 of the crimes - or 266 a year - occurred on hospital wards.

The figures have been uncovered by researchers at Women’s Rights Network who sent Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to 43 police forces in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
'

Front page Mail, mentioned on Telegraph front page.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11979529/Shocking-figures-reveal-6-500-sex-attacks-hospitals-just-three-years.html

That’s incredibly shocking, and awful.
thank you for sharing, really important.

The scale of it is particularly shocking. I suppose I had some vague idea that hospitals would be very safe places.

Do we have any context for this? It's absolutely terrifying to be honest. Are these attacks on patients/staff/both?
After the death of that poor elderly woman from a violent sexual assault while she was immobile in hospital, I really fear for my own mother if she has to go in.
I know they say it was safer during covid .. but where were the relatives? The eyes watching and protecting? Not allowed in!
Same in nursing homes still - highly convenient when you want to hide abuse

Data came from freedom of information requests...

The figures have been uncovered by researchers at Women’s Rights Network who sent Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to 43 police forces in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
^^
Of the 35 forces to respond, shocking crimes were uncovered including:
^^

• The rape of a female child under 13 and also the rape of a female over 16 by multiple offenders in West Midlands hospitals
• Three rapes of a female under 16 in Cambridgeshire
• Six rapes of girls under 13 in Lancashire

Although the FoI responses do not record the sex of the victims, national data shows that fewer than five per cent of rape victims are men so it is reasonable to assume that most victims were female. ^^ But the WRN investigation also uncovered:

• Thirteen rapes of males over the age of 16 — with one incident involving multiple offenders.
• The sexual assault of a male child under the age of 13 in a Cambridgeshire hospital

Despite the fact that hospitals are closely monitored by CCTV and wards often have secure entry systems, only 4.1 per cent are known to have resulted in a charge or summons. Five forces – City of London, Durham, Devon and Cornwall, Northamptonshire and North Yorkshire – did not issue a single summons or charge a single suspect for any of the 334 sexual assaults in their areas.

That means it's a pretty reliable dataset - one that really should be taken a lot more seriously. And should be on the radar of politicians already.

The fact that a woman's rights group has to do FOI to highlight this smacks of the institutional level indifference going on. There's clearly no internal or political will to improve on this as no one else is even talking about it never mind putting measures in place. Instead we are getting shit that women shouldnt have single sex provisions anymore!

And that's perhaps even more shocking than the statistics themselves. It's the fact that no one seems to care about them.

I've not read the full report yet, Arctic, still working through it.

'It is likely that victims also include staff, and possibly visitors.'

Also notes on discrepancies in how such crimes are recorded:

'The responses show a worrying lack of consistency in the way these crimes are recorded.
Police Scotland, for instance, was unable to provide data because, “there are no markers etc. on any of our crime recording systems to indicate whether an offence occurred in a hospital”. Accurate crime statistics require this as a minimum.'

Conclusion:

'We call upon NHS authorities, the Care Quality Commission and police constabularies to formally acknowledge this hidden domain of sexual violence. We ask the Home Office to require police constabularies to record full data about sexual violence in hospitals'

Imagine not recording the sex of a sex based crime.

What on earth is going on here? This is appalling?!

Terrifying number. 266 a year on wards made me go cold and also question where all the others took place. You think of hospitals as busy places with plenty of people around, but I can imagine there are much quieter areas.
I was absolutely petrified going to the toilet in a busy A&E at 3am. The single toilet was down corridors and round corners from the dept, completely isolated and very obvious where anyone leaving the main area was going. Someone rattling the lock continuously whilst I was in it and knowing I had to get past them to leave.

I'll start by saying that anyone who has been sexually attacked in this manner should be fully supported and if you are a victim of this you have my total sympathy and support.

The way these crimes are recorded are at the point of a victim confirmation. You have to take into consideration that sometimes (especially in mental health hospitals) reports are made that turn out to be untrue. I have been to loads & loads where a victim will make an allegation that they have been sexually attacked by their care staff. When you look at the CCTV, it hasn't happened.

This still gets recorded as a crime. But gets closed as undetected and a non-conviction recorded.

You, like almost everybody, think hospitals are safe places. Which is WHY they're ideal places for predators, patients, visitors and staff.

Another thing about hospitals is that when you're a patient, you basically give over your body to medical experts. You do not have bodily autonomy, sometimes aren't even recognised as a person, but are just a piece of meat needing treatment actions. This makes an ill or injured person who is vulnerable because of that, even more vulnerable.

I was sexually assaulted in a hospital by a doctor. I had collapsed earlier in the day and wasn't feeling good.

I was sexually assaulted a few years earlier when I was suffering from appendicitis. Again, by a doctor.

I was raped by a male medic, not in a medical setting, as he was my boyfriend. But he was back in the medical setting a day later. Everybody thought he was a really good guy, really kind, because he was a "male nurse" (in quotes because that phrase is often said in a reverential way).

These were all in different places, none in the UK. But men living in the UK aren't any different from any others just because they live in this country!

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.

I'll add that the only person who has heard about my experiences and asked "How can I help?" was also a male doctor. I have PTSD and have had worse health problems because I absolutely won't go to hospital unless I'm basically forced. I would rather have extreme pain than run the risk of being touched by doctors now. I have on my medical notes that I have PTSD from this and I'm open about it in medical settings (can't hide panic attacks anyway!😂). I have also nearly been misdiagnosed because I couldn't speak and was shaking uncontrollably once in a hospital abroad. It was pure fear, but they thought it was a symptom of my presenting problem.

Rape and sexual assault has massive lifelong consequences anyway (I've had other such experiences). There is a very serious added impact of being sexually assaulted to any extent in a medical setting though that I wish was better known.

'Only two police forces provided information about where in the hospitals the reported rapes and sexual assaults took place. In Cheshire, of the 160 rape and sexual assaults that were reported, 108 took place at hospital and not in mental health wards. This is important because the Care Quality Commission and the NHS sexual safety policies focus specifically on mental health wards and social care settings – rather than what might appear to be the more dangerous places of hospitals themselves.'

aweegc, I'm so very sorry. That is appalling.

Stupidly, the attraction to predators of a place that is by definition full of vulnerable people hadn't occurred to me.

Once again proving the point that in order to carry out safeguarding properly one has to use different logic to that of most people's.

Not sure if the report mentions this but other research shows sex offences are much higher in mixed wards.

WPUK is thus campaigning to end mixed sex wards

I agree, the crime reporting standards should detail where these have happened and the police's database systems should be able to search on these - however cut backs mean a lot of forces are using old computer systems which are beyond doing this.

On the CQC report:

'Despite the fact that most victims of rape, sexual assault, verbal sexual abuse and indecent exposure are women, none of the policies reviewed discusses the potential role of single sex spaces in reducing risk of sexual harm.'

'Accurate data is essential for good law and good governance, but there is no central system to record the number of rapes and sexual assaults in UK hospitals'

Congratulations to the women of the WRN for carrying all this out. It's scandalous.

I have an outlying family member whose daughter is a nurse in Cornwall. She has talked of the chaos of Covid, during which a strange man, dressed in scrubs and mask, walked into her hospital and was caught loitering on a women's ward with mainly older and some confused patients. He escaped before the police arrived and was impossible to identify.

Time for the police to be compelled into recording some actually useable data about sexual assaults and rape. I am sick to death of the shrugging and lack of interest in this, and the assumption of some people that the issue is actually with women lying rather than men assaulting.

RoseslnTheHospital
I'm not saying that at all - I am saying that you have to take this into consideration. And the victims i have dealt with for this are both men & women

I say again that if you have been a victim of this you have my complete sympathy and need as much support as possible.

Recordings and outcomes by police forces should be more open and safety in hospitals should be paramount.

There needs to be better data and the only possible reason for not having better data is a lack of caring about women's human rights.

Not collecting data is something governments do when they know there is a problem but they don't want there to be any decent evidence about that problem.

However, what there is shows a significant problem exists - this problem could be immediately reduced by providing single sex wards and spaces in hospitals. Immediately, overnight, with minimal cost implications. It's insane politicians aren't going for this quick win and shows how little women's safety matters.

But you then have the problem that the doctors & nurses have to be the same sex as the patient.

So you might have a really brilliant male doctor who is prevented from providing care to a female patient.

Thanks for posting Arabella.
Thank you aweegc for sharig your experience so courageously and so sorry that all happened to you.
Brava to WRN.
Beyond that I'm speechless, it's so shocking.

I suspect there will be massive discrepancies between residential care facilities, mental health facilities and mixed sex facilities compared to a normal ward on a hospital.

I also think there will be interesting figures relating to hcp providers / patients.

No one is interested though because there is no collection of data on this. It's not considered an issue worthy of looking at.

That's the hallmark of vulnerability - absence and lack of recording of data.