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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

This is the answer.

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

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

Thanks for share tokens.

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.

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

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.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/sanction-doctors-sexual-misconduct-b2015338.html

From last Feb.

'Nearly 150 doctors have been disciplined for sexual misconduct in the last five years, as surgeons call for action on the “systemic” and “cultural” problem of sexual assault within healthcare,'

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/metoo-moment-for-nhs-as-female-surgeons-speak-out-qzw3tbs56

The paper quoted:

https://publishing.rcseng.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1308/rcsbull.2021.106

This is research into a specific aspect of sexual assault within one part of healthcare. (Sexual assault and harassment among staff within surgery).

From November 2022:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/six-nhs-workers-reported-every-week-sexually-harassing-patient/

'Six NHS workers reported ‘every week’ for sexually harassing patient or colleague

Exclusive: 16,082 reports of sexual harassment have been made against doctors and nurses, patients, and ancillary staff since 2017'

Bring back middle aged matron dragons....

Staff didn't strike to stop Annexe B, or reduce abuse of patients or visitors.

There are no signs reminding visitors or staff to not abuse service users are there?

I understand with the increase in AI there will only be a requirement for a small body of experts to fill out care plans to be carried out by practical staff and training up HCAs there won't be as many staff, the female staff will increase as pay goes down.

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

And also deliberate innaccuracy - for example, when NHS tell police "no males were on the ward at the time of the alleged rape", when in reality they had let a transwomen in who had then gone on to rape a female patient.

Experienced matrons who can keep a ward functioning under their no-nonsense eye. My mum was a nurse and said you daren't cross the matron, was a travesty when they got rid of them.

November 2022:

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/11/28/nhs-must-urgently-investigate-byline-times-disturbing-figures-on-rape-and-sex-assault-in-hospitals-says-shadow-health-secretary/

'An investigation by this newspaper has shockingly unearthed that 4,100 patients, visitors and NHS staff were raped (1,364) or sexually assaulted (at least 2,744) in a hospital setting between January 2019 and September 2022 – with 633 raped or assaulted while on a hospital ward. At least three of the incidents were against a female child aged under 13.
Data from 31 police forces in England and Wales based on reported rapes and assaults revealed the scale of sexual violence within hospital settings, with victims including patients and staff members. '

...
'In the same time period analysed, there were 36,879 mixed-sex accommodation breaches across the NHS. Mixed-sex hospital wards were banned by Andrew Lansley in 2010, with the NHS Operating Framework for 2012-2013 confirming that all providers of NHS-funded care are expected to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation.'

Yes it seems so.

What was the timeline regarding Savile?

I think as a society we tend to put doctors on a pedestal at our own peril.
Healthy respect is ok but reverence is ill advised, unless genuinely earned.