Background In 2021, 37% of UK doctors reported experiencing direct verbal abuse from patients and/or the public in the last month. Of these 37%, 51% were general practitioners (GPs) and 30% were hospital doctors. Two-thirds of GPs said their experience of abuse, threatening behaviour or violence had become worse after the COVID lockdown. 67% of GPs reported witnessing abuse by patients towards colleagues and 96% of those who had witnessed it said it was towards reception staff. However, there is limited research on the experiences of violence and abuse amongst non-clinical or non-medical staff in general practice. Furthermore, there is no data suitable for direct comparisons between staff groups in general practice.

Objectives To explore the levels and nature of direct and indirect experiences of violence and abuse by patients and/or the public towards general practice staff since the start of the COVID19 pandemic.

Methods An online survey of general practice staff is conducted in England between 11/7/23 and 30/11/23. It is distributed through clinical research networks, professional newsletters and distribution lists, employing snowball sampling. The survey asks about the level of physical abuse, threats, verbal abuse, harassment, and inappropriate sexual behaviours directly experienced and/or witnessed in the preceding three years.

Results By 24th November 2023, 1,107 participants (39.4% clinical, 52% non-clinical, 8.6% other staff groups) from all regions of England completed the survey. Of these, 84.5% self-identified as a woman, 14.8% as a man, 0.2% as other genders and 0.5% preferred not to say. Overall, 48.1% of participants reported experiencing physical violence or threats of physical violence and 67% reported witnessing this type of violence; 92.6%% of participants reported experiencing verbal abuse and 95.8%% reported witnessing verbal abuse; 24.4% reported experiencing inappropriate sexual behaviours or remarks and 28.2% reported witnessing such behaviours; 61.2% reported feeling harassed. It is worth noting that 3.7% of participants reported experiencing serious mental health symptoms at the time of survey completion.

Conclusions The extent of violence and abuse experienced by staff in general practice appears to be prevalent among the respondents. Comparisons between staff groups, genders and regions will be further analysed.