NHS staff dial 999 10 times a month

Published on Thursday 28 February 2008 09:34

TEN 999 calls to police are being made each month by staff at NHS hospitals, health centres and GPs' surgeries in the Lothians.

St John's Hospital in Livingston saw the most emergency calls, with 43 made to the police last year.

The figures, released to the Evening News through freedom of information legislation, show offences ranging from violence, theft and vandalism, to missing persons and suspicious packages.

However, the majority related to some kind of assault or threat, with concern already high about the safety of people working for the health service. The figures only detail the times police attended NHS premises to deal with a 999 call, and one doctor predicted they were just the "tip of the iceberg".

Dr Peter Shishodia, secretary of the Lothians Local Medical Committee, said: "The majority of GPs do not dial 999, they try to contain the situation and then call the police's non-emergency number.

"It does not surprise me at all that the figure is this high and I think in truth it is an under-estimate of everything that goes on.

"Many GPs' surgeries have emergency alarms which, when they go off, alerts the receptionist to call 999.

"It's difficult to know what to do about it. There are all sorts of underlying issues including housing, education, patients not getting the appointments when they want them, drugs and alcohol. I've been a GP since 1989 and my sense is that it (crime at NHS premises] is increasing steadily.

"It makes it more difficult for the staff to work and is also a problem for patients in the waiting room. I know some GPs who have taken significant time out because of stress and the anxiety of returning to work."

Figures released last month revealed a third of Scottish doctors were physically or verbally assaulted in the past year.

The picture is no better in hospitals, with staff at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary's accident and emergency department claiming levels of violence reached an all-time high after Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifying match with France on November 17.

A Panorama investigation into hospital violence last year focused on the ERI and in particular the case of convicted rapist Donald Gibson, who was dubbed "Hannibal" for his abuse of nurses. Unison, the public sector union, admitted it is concerned not only by the high number of emergency calls its members are being forced to make, but also the impact that is having on impeding patient care.

Mick McGahey, Unison branch secretary for the Lothian University Hospitals Division, said: "If staff are having to divert themselves from their day-to-day work – whether it is booking patients in or treating them in A&E, anything that detracts from that puts added pressure on the service."

James McCaffery, director of acute services at NHS Lothian, said: "

Violence and aggression towards healthcare staff is totally unacceptable.

"We will prosecute anyone who is violent towards our staff."