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New polls show that about 67 percent of National Health Service (NHS) workers in the United Kingdom reported experiencing aggression from patients at least once a year.
The poll results were released as 1,474 people were admitted to the hospital on Wednesday for COVID-19 symptoms. The U.K. has lifted all remaining COVID-19 protocols, with embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying that the region "must learn to live with COVID in the same way we live with flu."
Johnson recently was accused of holding parties in 2020 and last year that violated COVID lockdown protocols. A garden party in May and a birthday party in June "should not have been allowed to take place," according to a recent report by civil servant Sue Gray. Numerous lawmakers have called for Johnson to step down.
Of the 67 percent who said they experiencing aggression from patients at least once a year, 19 percent reported that type of behavior at least once a week, according to YouGov. Additionally, 64 percent of workers reported having experienced the same behavior from a patient's family member at least once a year.
While not as prevalent as aggression, workers also reported that they have been the victims of violence more often in recent months. Around 19 percent of respondents said that they experienced violence at least once a year, with 5 percent experiencing violence at least once a week.
In another poll, 48 percent of all NHS staff said that they believed staffing shortages have impacted them "to a great extent," led by 55 percent of hospital workers. General practitioner surgery staff recording that answer the least amount at 37 percent. Further, 71 percent of participating workers said that the shortage has resulted in staff members working overtime or extra shifts to compensate.
However, intensive care units are still feeling the effects of COVID-19. In a new report from the New York Times, hospitals are considered to be a "parallel universe" by NHS workers, who are still tending to severely ill patients as the government continues to say that the pandemic is almost over.
"I think people are exhausted, they are burned out," Dr. Susan Jain told the New York Times. "The incentive to work in any of these environments is very little. That's a big problem."
According to government data, about 88,085 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, with the past week's total number of cases at 624,034, a 3.5 percent decrease from the previous week. More than 500 deaths were recorded on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out to the NHS for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
