Unhealthy cost of policing A&E 'war zones'

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde pays 60,000 a year for four officers to cover A&E at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Western Infirmary in Glasgow on Friday and Saturday nights.

Officers cover A&E across the UK in a bid to prevent violence towards doctors, nurses and other workers, hospital trusts said. Trusts in Liverpool and Newcastle also said they paid for police officers at the weekend.

From January to December 2009, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spent 28,980 for a police officer at Arrowe Park Hospital from 9pm to 5am on Friday and Saturdays. Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pays 25,000 a year for a police officer for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Newcastle General Hospital.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Having a police presence in two of our accident and emergency departments was the result of a significant rise in the number of staff reporting physical or verbal abuse. Glasgow Royal Infirmary has the presence of two police officers for four hours on a Friday and Saturday night. The Western Infirmary has two police officers for three hours on a Friday and Saturday night."

The spokeswoman said the trust had set up "the most comprehensive violence and aggression policy in Scotland" in 2005 which included CCTV and freephone lines direct to local police stations. She continued: " We offer staff the opportunity to complete a City and Guilds Certificate in dealing with aggression. As a last resort, staff are able to withhold treatment from a patient who is persistently violent or aggressive."

Other trusts said they paid for police to be on site during the week.

A spokeswoman for Unison, which represents 450,000 health workers in the UK, said: "We have spoken to staff working in A&E departments and some of them say it's like a war zone on Friday and Saturday night. There's no doubt the 24-hour drinking culture has meant that people are attending A&E drunk, particularly at the weekend.

"It's very frightening for staff working there and other patients. It's a sad fact that A&E needs to have police officers in there to protect staff and patients."

The spokeswoman said Unison wanted to see more people prosecuted and given heavier sentences if they were convicted of assaults on NHS staff and paramedics.

Sue Frith, from the NHS Security Management Service, said: "The SMS provides support to the NHS on measures to tackle violence against their staff, through the network of professionally trained local security management specialists.

"There is no such thing as a general security level in NHS A&E departments.

"Each part of the country will encounter different needs at different times of the year, from the flu pandemic in winter months to a seaside town in the height of summer.

"Trusts are able to identify the risk and staff accordingly."