Kindness Matters
Our Kindness Matters initiative aims to tackle the increasing cases of violence and aggression that our staff face from patients, their families, and members of the public to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and other patients.
These incidents don’t just affect individuals; they create an environment of fear, stress, and low morale, which in turn impacts the care our we provide to our patients.
Our teams work hard to treat every patient with kindness, respect, and dignity. In return, they deserve the same courtesy—and above all, they deserve to feel safe at work.
Why Kindness Matters
Our staff dedicate themselves to providing compassionate care, often under immense pressure. In our hospitals, clinics, and community settings across Croydon, staff members in many roles – doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, porters, receptionists, and many others – are committed to helping patients feel safe, respected, and cared for.
Unfortunately, we as NHS workers are at a higher risk of violence at work compared to other professions, and this has worsened in recent years, particularly since the pandemic.
The 2024 NHS Staff Survey revealed some troubling statistics from our colleagues. They told us that:
- Over 30% of them had experienced harassment, bullying, or abuse from patients, their families, or the public.
- Over 18% of them were physically assaulted while at work.
Last year, our security teams responded to 3,556 incidents, meaning there were at least ten security incidents every day, many involving hostility towards those that are there to provide care to those in our community.
These numbers are more than just statistics—they represent real people, our colleagues, facing unacceptable behaviour while simply doing their jobs.
The goal of Kindness Matters is simple - to encourage positive interactions between our staff and patients and visitors using our services. We are proud to care for you, so remember your support and your kindness can go a long way to ensuring the best experience.
Hear from our staff
Dr Arani
Nina
An honest and unedited experience from Nina
I was working as a receptionist in the Main Outpatients Department, when one of the patients started shouting as came in because there were so many people in the waiting room. Started saying there were too many 'blacks' here, that they get priority over white people. He pays his taxes so he should be seen first. That the last time he came here he saw a *** doctor and couldn’t understand a word they were saying. Look at the receptionist, they’re all bloody black. Coming here, taking all the jobs. He pointed at my colleague and said you probably can’t even speak English. He then pointed at me and told me I can go back to where I come from, to which I responded ‘I’m from Wandsworth, that’s 2 buses.’
I told him that due to his behaviour, no one on the reception desk was going to check him in. There was around 40 patients in the waiting room plus nursing staff, no one said anything or supported any of us on the desk. The matron took the patient into a side room and then came and asked if we could check him in. I didn't report his behaviour because I was new and I wasn’t aware of who I could report this to.
I was surprised by his comments, given that it’s a multicultural area. However, i t did not affect me in the slightest, I have always been thick skinned due to growing up in a multicultural household.
I think it’s very important to share as it clearly shows that despite their being nearly 50 people in the room, no one but me said anything to this man. No one told him to stop. No one pulled him up on his behaviour. No one defended us.
Sophia
Yvonne
An honest and unedited experience from Yvonne
The incident was when I was a junior staff nurse. I was allocated to look after a patient who was critically unwell I had to do intense observations which meant I was on my feet all time – caring for her, doing blood transfusions; half hour observations as she was very sick. She was not aware of who was looking after her. At around 5am she started to recover and feel better, and she looked around and saw me, she shouted don’t touch me black b**** m*****, go back where you come from. I had only been in the UK for three years and had not encountered racial abuse. I did not know what to do, I was tired my feet were swollen. I gave my all to look after this patient and all I got was insults, monkey, and go back to where you came from.
I was so emotional because I had given my all and had really looked after the patient, and she had recovered, and in return I was abused. I started to sob this did not make her stop even though I was sobbing she kept on going at it. The nurse in charge came to tell her to stop and the patient did not stop and so I was asked to sit in the nurse’s office, in there I could still hear her in the background saying that she did not want me near her.
Nurse in charge came and said I should move away from her and I was asked to sit in the nurse’s office. I was told to go back and look after the patient I was allocated to her a so had to go there and look after her. She physically tried to push me and saying I should not touch her.
At that time not one told me to report the behaviour I did not know how too. The Sister of the ward was informed that I had been abused but the nurse in charge did not ask me what happened or how she could support me so I was left alone feeling bruised unhappy and feeling unappreciated and I questioned whether I was in the right country - because a nurse is a nurse – I questioned am I in the right place? I spoke to some of my colleagues, and they said I have to be thick skinned.
After this incident I was a bit more cautious and I began to anticipate that it might happen again, it knocked my confidence, and it took a long time for me to be confident again.
I feel that staff that can go through a similar experience and still are - and what is important is the aftercare - checking on the wellbeing of that individual and helping them to heal from the experience. It does scar you because someone has abused you and you think did I choose to be black and nobody had confronted and racially abused me before. It was difficult because it was the first time and it happened at work, and it did not seem that my other colleagues who were not black understood what I was going through. To this day I still remember it - it is an experience that has never left me.