Doctors need training to respond to domestic violence, NICE guidance says

All doctors should receive training to recognise and respond to domestic violence, similar to their mandatory training on child protection, guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said.

The guidance, published on 26 February, outlined how health services, social care, and the third sector organisations they work with could respond effectively to domestic violence and abuse.1 It said that each year 7.4% of women and 4.8% of men experienced domestic violence or abuse and that 30% of women and 17% of men will experience it at some point in their lives.

The guidance is the first that NICE has produced on domestic violence. Mike Kelly, director of the Centre for Public Health at NICE, said that it was designed …