EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Out of Hours Security in Hospitals

In the USA, Hospitals were warned about the threat of bioterrorism and increased their security levels employing more security and tightening up who could visit wards.

I have spoken to a few people in our trust about people wandering around wards without anyone knowing whether they are visitors or sales reps.
The response from some of the staff was 'get real'.

Can we seriously do anything to tighten security or is the risk too low to worry about?

What is your Hospital doing about security?

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I got security everywhere and if I remember correctly, Dave H's old trust has its own police force Karl is your trust still protected by "Dads Army" As I remember these dudes where always too busy arresting illegally parked vehicles, the fact that goods where stolen from a locked workshop was of no concern to them.

Ffloyd

Ah John, my crème de crème, and fellow EBME'er, most trusts I have visited have some form of armament, I agree totally with you, staff should be given the asylum they deserve. Louis remembers a trust in the leafy outer suburbs of my old town where staff where being attacked on their way to the car park, and this was well before 9/11. Louis too would also be intrigued to know what other establishments have in the way of professional guardianship. As you know John, my fellow bridge monkey, the hospital where Louis resides has a very strict security policy, especially in these times of international hostilities.

Louis III

Louis,
The reason I mention it is because Hospitals in London have been told to raise their levels of security, and be more aware of ways of combatting bioterrorism - i.e. Treating victims.

I suppose the risk of anyone actually committing a terrorist act against a Hospital must be low. It wouldn't do their cause any good. It is sad that we even consider these things.

John, I know I have been told off on numerous occasions but I feel I must speak my mind here, so hear me out M8. I was suggesting earlier that the systems in place 5 months ago when I was still in the UK did nothing to protect the staff against the most simplest of petty crimes never mind “Gross Paranoia” over a biological threat. I am not slating the security people but I feel that it is an impossible situation to deter unless you are prepared to go to the lengths of say the “Civil Aviation Authority” and considering that even these dudes have not got it quite write yet then what chance have a few ageing EXPO officers got. After 9/11 paranoia has over took the “norm” so to speak, Passport offices and other corporate domains have adequate security but as we all know these buildings are constantly being evacuated due to prank telephone calls etc. This sort of, and I will say it again, PARANIOA, simply cannot exist in a hospital environment. The consequences of searching every patient, family, etc. and worse case, evacuation due to a prank call.. I mean come on lets get real here guys. Constructively speaking of course.

Ffloyd

Floyd,
I think you are right that there is 'paranoia' out there. It must be difficult to get the balance right. The risks in London must be higher, but even there the risk must be extremely low of a Hospital being attacked.

The government would be 'over the coals' if they didn't advise chief executives to make their staff more aware of security, and how to deal with 'unusual illness'. I have noticed more emphasis on wearing of ID badges, and all our ID Badges were changed to Photo ID badges recently.

We have moved to ID badges with integral photo's.

Also, to access certain wards, you have a barcode on your ID badge. These can then be programmed to allow entry/exit to certain wards via a swipe reader on the wall. If you don't have one, you have to buzz-in & wait for a member of staff to let you in.

I suppose that this sytem could be programmed to log every swipe with time, date, location & staff ID.

This is great for tracking staff & stolen/missing badges, but what about Joe Public wandering around less secure areas?

Security and the associated paranoia (please fogive my spellin if its rong) will always be an area of discussion that we all have our own views on, for instance a recent survey said that over 78% of people who live in UK are worried about burglary, but only 14% are worried about getting mugged. However your a lot more likely to get mugged than you are burgled and mugging is more likely to involve violence, the actual data shows ??
As for being paranoid, who said Iam.
If you want paranoid how about my thoughts that there are people using this system who maybe logging on under several IDs.
Or maybe giving out details on any security levels you have whether at home / work or elsewhere, on a site like this could be seen as giving your details to the world
Or maybe its just me haivin another bad day.
You never can tell.

I didn't realise the Beano was including things like surveys in their publications of late, my dear ol' paranoid Karlos

I'd like to think we work in an environment where security was important but not high visability.

There are things that could be improved as to public access but, like most things in the NHS, these would only probably take place after an "incident" of some major proportion, finance restrictions being what they are.

I remember going into one of the Manchester hospitals once and the first thing you came across was a police security lodge with a 6ft plod standing there holding a Heckler & Koch.

Not exactly the sympathetic caring approach you expect from a health care provider.

I'm sure Exit Wound though would find this quite acceptable

Don't know what your on about dude