NHS staff report 20,000 claims of patient sexual misconduct over five years

Exclusive: Allegations across 212 hospital trusts in England include claims of rape, sexual assault and stalking

Thousands of hospital staff are reporting claims of sexual assaults and harassment by patients, an investigation has found, prompting calls for ministers to address the daily threat of abuse" faced by doctors and nurses.

More than 20,000 alleged incidents of sexual violence and sexual misconduct by patients on hospital staff were recorded in the five years to 2022 by 212 NHS trusts in England, freedom of information (FoI) requests by the Guardian and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found.