More than 35,000 incidents of sexual misconduct or sexual violence - ranging from derogatory remarks to rape - were recorded on NHS premises in England between 2017 and 2022.
Rape, sexual assault or being touched without consent accounted for more than one in five cases.
Most incidents - 58% - involved patients abusing staff.
The data was collected by the BMJ and the Guardian, and shared with BBC File on 4.
Freedom of Information requests were received from 212 NHS trusts and 37 police forces in England.
The data that came back from trusts showed at least 20% of incidents involved rape, sexual assault or inappropriate physical contact - including kissing. Other cases included sexual harassment, stalking and abusive or degrading remarks. One in five cases involved patients abusing other patients - although not all trusts provided a detailed breakdown.
Meanwhile, police recorded nearly 12,000 alleged sexual crimes on NHS premises in the same time period - including 180 cases of rape of children under 16, with four children under 16 being gang-raped.
Source: BBC News, 23 May 2023
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