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Protecting emergency workers : the North- South divide
18 August 2008
Scotland took the lead on protecting emergency workers in the UK
when it passed the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act in 2005 making
it a criminal offence to assault or impede certain classes of
emergency workers. Similar protection for emergency workers in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland did not follow until the
Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006. Scotland has now taken
matters a step further by amending the class of personnel afforded
protection under the act.
The original legislation in Scotland made it
an offence to assault or impede the police, fire fighters and
ambulance personnel. It also set out a secondary offence affording
protection to a wider class of public sector workers who were
responding to emergency circumstances. This included prison
officers, coastguards, lifeboat crew, registered medical
practitioners, registered midwives and registered nurses.
The legislation in England, Wales and Northern
Ireland was less generous. It only applied to certain groups of
public sector workers when responding to an emergency. Not only was
the class of public sector workers more limited, so were the
circumstances in which the act would protect them.
Scotland has now extended the legislation by
bringing registered medical practitioners; registered midwives and
registered nurses within section 1 of the act making it an offence
to assault of impede this group of workers regardless of whether
they are responding to an emergency.
Contrast this to the position in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland. Here a registered medical practitioner,
registered midwife or nurse will only be protected if responding to
an emergency which is fairly narrowly defined. A doctor
assaulted or impeded whilst engaged in a routine clinic in Scotland
is protected, but not in England, Wales or Northern
Ireland.
Recent surveys suggest that despite the
ongoing issue of under reporting, the numbers of assaults continues
to rise. In October last year Unison reported that the number of
attacks on Scotland’s health and local government workers had risen
by 2,000 in 12 months. This lead Unison to call for the Emergency
Workers Act to be extended beyond medical staff to cover social
workers, housing staff and traffic wardens.
Scotland is clearly taking the safety of
health workers seriously. Since the Emergency Workers Act was
introduced there have been over 1,000 prosecutions and 600
convictions. This though is only the tip of the iceberg – over the
same period there were 1,344 physical assaults and 305 incidents of
verbal assault in one area alone. It will be interesting to see if,
as promised by The Minister for Public Health Shona Robinson, the
number of people who might not have been prosecuted before now
facing prosecution.
The extension of protection afforded to those
serving in the NHS is to be welcomed but it is questionable whether
the current legislation goes far enough. As highlighted above there
are discrepancies between the levels of protection given to NHS
staff either side of Hadrian’s Wall. Further why should a nurse,
doctor or midwife have protection denied to other NHS staff such as
healthcare assistants, physiotherapists, porters and receptionists?
It is likely that all those dealing with patients are equally at
risk. As long ago as June 1998 the then Health Minister Alan
Milburn announced his four-point action plan to tackle violence
against NHS staff. One of the main concerns driving that initiative
was the fact that 1 in 7 of all reported incidents in the NHS
involved physical assaults.
10 years on there is still much to be done but
things are moving in the right direction. Indeed it is unlikely
that Mr Milburn expected to eradicate the problem in a decade. We
need to maintain the current momentum and hope that Scotland can
lead the UK forward to a position where, as a society, we do not
accept any form of abuse or violence towards those that serve us.
Those that breach this code should expect to be dealt with firmly
by the courts. In the meantime government needs to ensure that the
present review of the NHS does not overlook protecting those who
are central to delivery of patient care.
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