We deserve an NHS in which staff and patients are safe from harm

Editorial: As the senior official in charge of the 1.4 million-strong NHS workforce concedes that sexual harassment within the service is endemic and a ‘shameful’ stain on its reputation – following shocking evidence uncovered by The Independent – urgent action must now be taken to ensure it is stamped out

Last year, almost 26,000 members of NHS staff reported unwanted sexual behaviour from colleagues (PA)

The NHS is an institution of which Britain ought to be proud. But The Independent’s catalogue of exposés about sexual assault and harassment within the health service makes for grim reading.

From the shocking number of sexual assaults on patients and staff within NHS-run mental health services to the complaints of alleged sexual violence in psychiatric hospitals, only a small proportion of which have led to charges, and the sexual harassment of trainee paramedics, it is clear that things cannot continue as they are.

Now, the senior official overseeing the NHS workforce has added her voice to the chorus of calls for change that has arisen in the wake of our reporting.