Press statement from Stacey Hunter, group chief executive for University Hospitals Tees (the group partnership of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust).
“The deplorable violence and criminal activity we have seen over recent days is fundamentally wrong and where this is obviously racially motivated fills me with a deep sense of shame.
“The people who are out there doing these terrible things do not represent the views of the vast majority of us and we would like to thank all the members of our community who continue to support our teams.
“I want to say how proud I am of the outstanding professionalism of our staff who have been responding and dealing with the consequences of this horrific violence in conjunction with our health partners and the fire and police services.
“While all our healthcare services have remained fully operational, we have had staff who have struggled to attend shifts due to the disruption and risk assessments have had to be carried out ahead of some home visits. We have also moved a small number of community clinics when we have been notified of disruption.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation and have support in place for our staff to ensure they feel as safe as possible.
“We are committed to our zero-tolerance approach to anyone abusing our staff. No one should feel afraid to go to work and to live their lives – we stand by our colleagues so they feel safe over this period and urge any staff members who need further support to contact their manager or our people service.
“Anyone needing treatment and any patient with an appointment should still attend as they normally would.”