New safety alarm devices for lone workers will be provided to 30,000 NHS workers, as part of the Department of Health’s pledge this week to spend £97m on tackling violence against NHS staff.
As well as including an alarm function, the device will help locate the user and link them to a trained individual who can summon help if needed. In total, £29m has been set aside to be spent on the 30,000 new devices.
The investment comes as part of a concerted push to crack down on violence against NHS staff. In addition to personal alarms the Department of Health will also invest in a new centralised reporting system to track violence against NHS staff.
Health secretary Alan Johnson said: "Over 58,000 NHS staff were physically assaulted by patients and relatives in England in 2005-06. This is completely unacceptable. NHS staff working alone and in the community are particularly at risk. Thanks to these safety alarms they will know that help is at hand.
"Although we have seen a sixteen-fold increase in prosecutions since 2003, more needs to be done. NHS staff dedicate their lives to caring for the sick and in return they deserve respect. Anybody who abuses our staff must face tough action and the possibility of jail."
A new centralised reporting system to help keep track of measures being taken in NHS trusts across England is also being promised, funded with some of the additional £68m allotted to funding a range of security measures to reduce violence and abuse.
The system will be used by the NHS Security Management Services to monitor security issues in every English hospital.
Using the system, the NHS service should be able to identify poor performing trusts, analyse security weaknesses and recommend targeted prevention measures.
The system will be funded with The aim is to ensure that as many staff as possible have the skills to recognise and defuse potentially violent situations.
Local security management specialists, familiar with the results recorded by the system, and trained by the Security Management Services, will also be recruited in every health body.
All NHS staff will receive mandatory training in personal safety, conflict resolution and dealing with verbal abuse.
More funding to increase the number of prosecutions of cases where staff are assaulted will also be provided.
The Department for Health’s pledge to share £97m to help tackle the problem, follows health secretary Alan Johnson’s speech to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.
As well as outlining plans to tackle health inequalities and boost the fight against hospital infections, Johnson said he wanted to make the NHS more user-friendly for patients.
He said patients should be treated close to home and GP surgeries should open ‘at times and in locations that suit the patient, not the practice.’
The £97m will be provided over four years – £7m as start up costs for 2007/08 and a further £30m a year for 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11.
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