There is vast amount of literature that highlights and studies the presence and increase in violence and aggression in A&E departments (or ED), all across the world (e.g. UK, USA, Israel, Iran, Turkey & Australia). The impact of violence and aggression on A&E staff has been recorded very widely too. There is limited amount of reference/studies of the impact this violence and aggression has on the patient being violent and other patients using the A&E department at the same time. Interventions to reduce violence and aggression have also been documented in literature. However, references to environmental interventions such as design were found in only a handful of documents, and none of them established through research the impact of environmental interventions on violence and aggression in A&E.

As a researcher who is interested in the design of hospitals and its impact on patient experience, I couldn’t help but take note of the design of the Addenbrooke’s A&E department, which I visited in June 2011 as a patient. Here are the notes I wrote a day after my visit:
I felt sharp pains in my stomach at 11:30 at night, and cried like a baby. With my husband my side, knowing that the pain had not eased as we had earlier hoped, we decided to go to A&E.
Our local …