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

In the situation that this care is not acceptable to the female patient, it doesn't matter how brilliant the male doctor is.

It's not a blanket thing: it's about intimate care and recognising that sometimes people have a genuine need for same sex care for specific procedures. The alternative of telling a patient 'deal with this person intimately handling you or go without care' is not care, it's inhuman.

Some screenshots from the report.

It's in The Telegraph anyone got a share token?https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/17/thousands-of-hospital-sex-attacks-reported-to-police-figure/?s=08

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

I'm in agreement with dimorphism on this -

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.

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

If a female patient doesn't want a male HCP then a male doctor is incapable of providing good 'care', no matter how 'brilliant' he is. Most male doctors would understand this, I would imagine, rather than taking it as a personal slight and making the situation all about them.

At least, if they have the first understanding of trauma, or say, religious belief, or any empathy, they would.

nilsmousehammer

I agree - as a male patient of various procedures, vasectomies etc - I had no say in it at all - and it was an all female team that did both procedures.

Perhaps you could look at single sex hospitals for both staff & patients

Abso-fucking-luetely.

One thing I've said on MN many time is that when people talk about things or produce data, you should look for the ommisions and the lack of data because they are more important and more significant than the things that you know or the things that are said.

This is a bloody good example of that.

I agree - there should be more transparent to - to show the outcomes of the various enquiries. Why crimes were not detected or resulted in a charge. Why a court case has not resulted in a conviction

I felt sick reading this, what an absolute scandal. Heartbreaking too for all those victims who have been denied justice. The one place they should have felt safe. Think of all the CCTV they have in hospitals, it beggars belief that these crimes have only resulted in a tiny percentage of prosecutions. Maybe the police just don’t care.

There’s at least one rape a day in schools too. Which is why mixed sex toilets with full height doors must be stopped.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34138287

I feel so sick reading this.

Have any of the hospitals publicly stated what they have done to stop it happening again or just ignored it and left it to the police?

More than 5,500 alleged sex crimes in UK schools were reported to police in the last three years, BBC figures show.

Werent schools predominantly closed or carefully segregated for two of those years due to covid restrictions which would mean the majority were from the third year...when girls only toilets and changing rooms were made "inclusive"?

I thought Felix was responding to the suggestion for single-sex wards not intimate care? I hope we all recognise that single-sex healthcare providers absolutely should be available for intimate procedures, or for patients where that is needed.
I’m not sure how possible it would be to staff wards entirely by sex and still have access to all the skills and manpower flexibility needed? I’m not sure it would then be desirable to enforce single-sex visitors.
I do completely agree that wards should be single-sex for patients, and that that should happen as soon as possible

KalimbaMoon

Its not that we don't care - its a huge topic as to why the conviction rate is low

Partly due to difficulties in proving these offences beyond reasonable doubt, some victims don't want to proceed the case to court etc etc

Its not that we don't care - i have the upmost respect for victims/survivors of these crimes and their decisions that they make - and i do not think its right to put any pressure on them to proceed a case to court if they don't want to.

Tiny, OMG, and you can just imagine how hard it would be for a girl to report - and I’m guessing this is reported incidents only….

The dates were before the pandemic.

Pixiedust1234
More than 5,500 alleged sex crimes in UK schools were reported to police in the last three years, BBC figures show.

The crime recording standards changed during this time too

So now if a victim says they are a victim of a crime it gets recorded regardless of its outcome. Previously it could be 'not crimed' if it could be shown it has't happened.

Now you need overwhelming evidence to show a crime has not happened to not record it as a crime.

Why hyperbolic black and white extremes? Which is obviously unhelpful and not a rational way to think about good basic patient care.

If you state your preference for a same sex hcp then that will be taken into account. HCPs are trained in diversity/trauma/all the rest of it, and their main aim will be (if they have the capacity to do the job) the comfort and best interests of the patient in front of them.

This may involve explaining for example that no same sex member of staff is available to do this right now, but the staff will do their best to arrange this, with the wait being the patient's part to play in compromise

Or: there is not a same sex member of staff trained for this/ we do not have a same sex member of staff available in the time frame you need, so how can we do this in a way that you may feel more comfortable with? What adaptations might help?

This is basic, basic stuff!

And the niggling and angels dancing on heads of pins nonsense is almost always about trying to get women to surrender to men going wherever they want. And fuck that, to put it bluntly.

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?

Here you go

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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