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Search forNearly 200 hospital staff assaulted
Saturday, November 15, 2008, 16:00
Under its umbrella are Sutton Coldfield's Good Hope Hospital, Solihull and Heartlands Hospitals and Birmingham Chest Clinic.
According to new statistics for 07/08, a total of 195 HEFT employees were assaulted. That works out at around 20 assaults per 1,000 staff.
The numbers, compiled by the NHS Security Management Service, show an increase on data for the period 06/07 when there were 119 assaults.
The jump is explained by HEFT's acquisition of Good Hope in April last year; the merger broadening its portfolio and workforce considerably.
But Good Hope has not unduly burdened the Trust. The last individual figure recorded for Good Hope in 06/07 was 67 assaults; this number being similar to the difference between total assaults at HEFT in 06/07 and 07/08 (76).
In a separate survey published in April, England's Healthcare Watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, polled HEFT staff about safety between October and December 2007.
Focusing on the previous 12 months, a period which included but also pre-dated the merger with Good Hope, 21 per cent of staff said they had experienced injury on the job. Nine per cent said they had experienced physical violence at the hands of patients or visitors – a figure placing the Trust among those to have been least blighted by assault.
HEFT said then that it was a positive result, and was born of 'significant' investment in security, including CCTV.
Dermit McCausland, managing director of the NHS Security Management Service, said that nationally, assault figures had increased.
But he added: "We firmly believe this rise demonstrates a shift in culture among staff who are saying they will not accept violence as part of the job and are demonstrating this by reporting rather than an actual increase in assaults."
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