by Domestic abuse is an emergency for public health. Experts have claimed that after a report has come to the conclusion that the NHS fails the victims by not training the staff in order to recognize and react the signs of domestic violence.
About one of four people (21.6%) in England and Wales from the age of 16, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics in domestic abuse and 12.6 million people.
The analysis shows that the NHS has more contact with victims and perpetrators than any other public service.
New research results of the charity organization, which stands against domestic abuse (Stada), claims that the health service lacks the most important opportunities to save lives. It examined all official checks of murders and suicide in connection with abuse in Germany, which were published in 2024, and found that about 90% protected the NHS.
The lack of training for domestic abuse was the most common criticized criticism. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidance recommends the mandatory training for NHS employees at the front of the identification and proper care of victims in household abuse. The analysis of Stada, however, showed that such training was “sporadic and inconsistent”.
The report also shows repeated failures of the NHS to record risks, exchange information and to help victims of other specialists such as alcohol and psychiatric services as well as independent consultants for domestic violence.
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The results of a separate study published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe and calculated in the calculated that 26% of all women who died by suicide and have become victims of domestic violence known to secondary psychiatric services.
The government is scheduled to publish its strategy this summer, how it can fulfill its promises to halve violence against women and girls by 2034.
However, this ambition is not achieved without urgent measures, concludes the Stada report. The NHS should finance an obligatory, standardized training for domestic abuse for members of the health professions and specialists such as consultants for mental health, the study recommends. The data recording and information exchange should also be improved.
Cherryl Henry-Leach, the managing director of Stada, said: “We ask the government to recognize domestic abuse as a question of public health.
“Treat [domestic abuse] Only as a prison problem costs life. The NHS has more contact with sacrifices and perpetrators than any other public service, which has been uniquely positioned to tackle this crisis. “
Related: “Epidemie” of violence against women and girls in Great Britain is getting worse – report
Tim Woodhouse, a specialist in suicide prevention and author of the Churchill Fellowship Report on suicide and domestic violence, said: “Domestic abuse is an emergency of public health. The level of physical and mental pain, the sacrifices (and their children) is imposed by perpetrators by perpetrators, is immense and we know that these psychological torture is too great and their own lives.
“I calculated that 1,800 people every year could die in self -murder in home abuse. This is a tragically high waste of life and a national scandal.”
Andrea Simon, the director of the final violence against women’s coalition, said: “The workers in the healthcare system are often the first and only the contact point for victims of abuse and it is important that they are equipped to identify, coat and protect victims.
Prof. Kamila Hawthorne, chairman of the Royal College of GPS, said, given the trustworthy relationships that GPS have to patients, “be it worrying that ways to help sacrifice may be missing.”
Further training courses would be welcomed and valuable.
An NHS spokesman said: “All NHS employees have to complete the training of training about domestic violence and abuse in order to convey the skills and knowledge they need to support victims and survivors, and this training is currently updated.”
A government spokesman said: “We remain determined in our mission to tackle domestic abuse and to have set up a system that protects the victims, support their journey into the judiciary and take the perpetrators into account.
“Members of the health professions are often the first lifeline for victims of domestic abuse – play an important role in support to overcome the trauma and to rebuild their lives.
“Thanks to our change plan, we develop a coordinated approach in the entire government, which is underpinned by a new strategy, which is to be published later this year to prevent domestic abuse and protect the victims.”
