Home Office Good Practice Seminars
Violent Crime Seminar
Workshop 1
Work related violence: early findings from the Safer Hospitals Initiative
Chris Wyers, Police Scientific Development Branch, Home Office
Key points
The initiative is run in partnership with the Department of Health, (NHS Counter Fraud & Security Management Service) and is funded by the Treasury Invest to Save Budget. The aims of the initiative are to:
establish the effectiveness of technology
reduce crime and the fear of crime in hospitals
develop best practice.
The presentation focused on Birmingham Heartlands Hospital's A&E department, one of the three pilot sites. This large hospital was built in 1994 and covers approximately 2200 square metres, has facilities for receiving patients by helicopter and is designated a major incident unit.
Heartlands data for 2001 showed that there were almost 2,000 incidents recorded for the entire hospital, only 52% of these were clear crimes but 11% of the incidents did not contain enough information to classify the event. The A & E dept. had the highest level of incidents in the hospital, and assault and aggressive behaviour was more evident here.
A spatial analysis was conducted based on 3 themes: surveillance, movement and way-finding (internal and external) and a new incident database was set up to record incidents more accurately which allowed for better analysis of the problems.
Amongst new measures that were taken to reduce crime and fear of crime in the A & E dept. were the re-alignment of the reception, additional CCTV coverage and improved signage.
Patients or visitors wandering into the wrong area because they either don't see or don't understand the signs, can lead to their frustration becoming confrontational anger, particularly if they are in pain or discomfort.
Many of the improvements such as encouraging patients and visitors to populate only the areas in which they should be, as opposed to being found in staff or treatment areas, are quite easily and reasonably implemented. Use of access control, for example, will better distinguish public spaces from clinical areas.
Key success factors
Three key elements for the success of the initiative are:
to develop a project management team in the hospital to facilitate the progression of the work
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that improved incident reporting systems need to be put in place in order for management to address problem issues
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improve the information given to patients and visitors such as good clear directional signage.
The other pilot sites are St Bartholomew's Hospital in Kent and the East Midlands Ambulance Service in Nottingham.
Download the full PowerPoint presentation (1.88 Mb - large file)
Last update: 28/01/04