Healthcare
Violent abuse against healthcare workers in on the increase. In 2002/3, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) experienced an unprecedented amount of attacks against its staff. These included:
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116,000 reported attacks (both verbal and serious physical assaults)
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37% of abuse by patients or colleagues
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14% of staff suffered a physical attack
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36% subsequestly suffered from work-related stress
In addition, 80% of nursing staff in mental health units experienced violent or threatening behaviour.
NHS staff who work alone face a significantly increased risk of being attacked. This has been attributed to some of the following causes:
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They do not have the immediate support of colleagues or others, should an incident occur.
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Very often assaults take place in one to one situations with no way of evidencing the incident - evidence which could potentially support any action taken against alleged offenders.
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This lack of evidence results in a reluctance by lone working staff to report incidents.
In accepting a 'culture of violence' towards lone working staff, victims can experience feelings of unworthiness, isolation and that nothing can or is being done to support them. In 2004/5, the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS) trialed and evaluated Identicom as a potential cost effective solution to this major problem. Following a successful NHS trial of Identicom in March 2005, Dr John Reid MP (then Health Secretary) publicly announced that over 100,000 community based NHS staff should benefit from Identicom. Additionally, Jim Gee, Chief Executive of the NHS Security Management Service said:
"The NHS Security Management Service has successfully completed trials of the Identicom device. NHS staff said they felt safer and more at ease in their working environment when using this device.”
Since the 2002/3 statistics, the NHS SMS has reported that during 2004/05 there was a fifteenfold increase in the number of prosecutions against people who attack NHS staff.
Identicom solution:
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Identicom provides a visible deterrent that clearly demonstrates violence against NHS staff will not be tolerated and any person who attacks staff will be prosecuted.
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Identicom helps in the detection of assaults by facilitating a way in which staff can confidently report an incident.
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Identicom's 'Red Alert' activation function provides staff with a way to discreetly raise an alarm without further compromising their personal safety during an attack.
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Identicom allows more incidents to be investigated - as a direct result of more attacks being reported.
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Identicom provides NHS organisations with additional information about the nature of attacks that can be used to support sanctions and redress on lone worker polices and procedures.
NHS staff who are at increased risk of attack and who whould benefit from Identicom include:
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Alcohol Detox Nurses
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Care Assistants
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Community Midwives
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Community Paramedic Officers
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Community Psychiatric Nurses
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Continence Nurses
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District Nurses
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Domestics
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Emergency Care Practitioners
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General Practitioners
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Health Visitors
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Laboratory Staff
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Macmillan Nurses
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Occupational Therapists
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Orthotist
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Outreach Workers
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Paediatric Nurses
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Paramedics
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Physiotherapists
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Public Health Nurses
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School Nurses
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Security Staff
If you would like to learn more about how the NHS SMS is protecting vulnerable NHS workers, please visit the NHS' Counter Fraud Security Management Service website at: www.cfsms.nhs.uk
