Southampton General Hospital patients could face ban for violence and abuse of staff

Patients could be banned from Southampton General Hospital under beefed up measures introduced to tackle rising levels of violence, harassment and abuse against staff.

University Hospital Southampton (UHS) has adopted a new approach aimed at strengthening how it deals with incidents.

Senior trust leaders signalled their support for taking a firmer stance to back key workers.

Chief executive David French said: “We have now got a line where we are very clear to say we are not putting up with this and staff are aware of that.”

The approach, backed by the trust’s board at a meeting on Thursday 9 July, replaces a previous yellow card and red card system which had a “mixed effect”, according to chief people officer Steve Harris.

Under the new policy, the trust has toughened the consequences available for patients, service users and organisations that breach expected standards of behaviour.

A four-stage process has been introduced, ranging from an informal intervention through to legal exclusion from the hospital in the most serious cases.

The latter would see a patient banned from the site except to receive emergency care with threat to life and limb.

Mr Harris said: “I remember us being sat around the board table in September and at the time there was huge amounts of civil unrest, there was real tensions in the community and particularly our staff those from an international background and of non-white heritage were feeling very challenged.

“We collectively took the view as a board sparked from a challenge by David (French), quite rightly, we need to do better in this area.”

Violence against NHS staff has been rising nationally.

Data released in the latest NHS staff survey indicated almost one in seven had been physically attacked by a patient or the public last year, which was the highest rate for three years.

Mr French said he wanted the trust to take a firmer stance and would be prepared for UHS to be an outlier if necessary.

He said: “We have now got a line where we are very clear to say we are not putting up with this and staff are aware of that.”

A dedicated violence, abuse and aggression (VAA) board has been established to oversee the policy and make decisions on individual cases.

The group, co-chaired by Mr Harris and chief operating officer Andy Hyett, currently meets every two weeks to review reports from staff and take action.

Michelle Oakford, clinical lead on the VAA board, told the meeting: “It’s so important staff have felt listened to and we’re starting to do something about it.

“For them the amount of violence and aggression we get reported is unacceptable and for me it’s really important staff feel we’re actually taking some action on these inappropriate situations which staff find themselves in.”

Mr Hyett said the board was “really powerful”, with its panel able to reach balanced decisions in individual cases.

Natasha Watts, acting chief nursing officer, added: “This really matters to our staff.”

The trust said it is also working with a new security provider, who is supporting the organisation’s approach.

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