HC Deb 08 June 2004 vol 422 cc133-4
5. Helen Jones (Warrington, North) (Lab)

What steps are being taken to reduce assaults on NHS staff; and if he will make a statement. [177289]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr. Stephen Ladyman)

In December 2003, the NHS security management service published its strategy to make the NHS a safer place in which to work. The strategy has a comprehensive range of measures to tackle violence against NHS staff. These include the United Kingdom's largest ever training programme to equip NHS staff to deal with violent situations, a national reporting system for physical assaults and the establishment of a legal protection unit to work with the police and Crown Prosecution Service.

Helen Jones

I welcome the initiatives that the Government have already taken in the area, but will my hon. Friend carefully consider the position of those NHS staff who work in clients' homes or in isolated units? What more can be done to protect them and equip them to cope with any dangerous situations that might arise in the course of their work?

Dr. Ladyman

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her comments. Top-quality staff doing a top-quality job deserve a top-quality working environment, and that includes those who work in isolated areas. We are doing several things. Such staff will have the same access as any other members of staff to the advice of security management personnel and the same training in conflict resolution. They will also have additional services available, including technological assistance for lone workers that will allow them to report when they face difficulties, wherever they are when they are attacked.

Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)

It is staggering to all of us to think that a patient would ever strike NHS staff, but it does happen. It happens increasingly on Friday and Saturday nights when patients are in accident and emergency, high on drugs or drunk. Can the Minister liaise with his Home Office colleagues to ensure that hospitals and accident and emergency units get community office support and police support to protect hospital workers? Will he send a message out clearly to anyone who dares strike a hospital worker that it is the quickest way of getting from a hospital ward to a prison cell?

Dr. Ladyman

That is absolutely right. We must have zero tolerance of all forms of violence. We must also ensure that proper security advice is available to all hospital departments, including accident and emergency departments, wherever they are and whatever night it is. We must ensure that we deal with every single attack on an NHS staff member with the utmost vigour and that we prosecute such attacks. The hon. Gentleman will have seen that an antisocial behaviour order was recently taken out against an individual that bans him from NHS premises anywhere in the country, and that is the sort of action that we need.

I have to say that we also need to start ensuring in our political debates that It people appreciate that they should respect NHS staff and that entails an obligation on the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues to stop bad-mouthing NHS staff and ensure that everybody is aware of the work that they do.

Mrs. Joan Humble (Blackpool, North and Fleetwood) (Lab)

Further to my hon. Friend's statement about training, can he outline the extent of that training? Will it cover all NHS staff and will it cover both conflict resolution—to reduce the occasions on which assaults may take place—and how to deal with assaults when they happen?

Dr. Ladyman

Different types of training will be available. For example, every health body will have to nominate an individual to be responsible for advising on security matters. Those individuals will receive very specific and detailed training in such matters. Individual staff members will get conflict resolution training of the sort to which my hon. Friend refers and we estimate that at least 750,000 people will have access to that training. It will be thorough and it will be available to everybody.