A Lanarkshire hospital has tightened security and restricted patient visits following a rise in abuse directed at NHS staff.
On one occasion, nurses at the maternity unit at University Hospital Wishaw were chased out of a ward by family members who were unwilling to leave when visiting ended.
NHS Lanarkshire said the level of verbal abuse being directed at staff had led to workers taking sick leave and "crying on shift".
Senior midwives have now taken the decision to reduce the second visitor to two hours per day and by appointment only.
The health board said security had also been tightened at the hospital.
Cheryl Clark, NHS Lanarkshire's chief midwife said: “We have worked tirelessly to get visiting back to what our parents and families want.
“However, over the last few months, the level of verbal abuse being directed at our staff in the maternity unit at University Hospital Wishaw has continued to rise.
“Our staff are being subject to vile language and abuse and in one instance staff were chased out a ward by family members not willing to leave.
“This not only affecting the staff but also having a negative impact on the care we strive to deliver at all times.
"To stop this abuse, one of the measures we are taking is that the second visitor will now only be able to attend by prior appointment and for a maximum of two hours.
“This was an extremely difficult decision but the result of the abuse means our staff are going off sick, crying on shift and it is affecting their mental health.
"It is sad to say that we have also increased security measures to ensure the safety of our staff and other families.
She added: “I make a personal plea to all visitors and patients to our maternity unity - please be kind, please be compassionate and please be respectful to our staff and other families.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel