safety!!

Re: safety!!

Kim Buckley — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:29:34 GMT

Im my old job the nurse was on site all night by themselves. The practice was in the middle of the town centre and so you got your usual drunks at 3am. I used to get very freaked out at times. They built a new hospital which felt a lot more secure as all the doors and windows were alarmed but the old building felt very unsafe.

We used to have another nurse who would come in at 10pm to sleep in just so we weren't there alone but we were told that if we didn't have a sleep in nurse then we could get their money aswell as our own (which made a total of about £30!) so the sleep in nurse was dropped. We did have panic buttons in the practice and I always made sure I had my phone on me.

The one thing which I thought was completely ridiculous was one night I was on duty and in bed asleep when the phone rang. It was our long term locum nurse who was staying in the other bedroom in the nurses flat. She asked me if I could bring her her mobile! I was really confused and she then explained that she had heard the farm departments (which was nextdoor) burgular alarm going off so had rang the farm partner. She was asked to go check it out! When she looked the front door had been smashed in so she was waiting outside for the vet to turn up. I think this was completely out of order! What if whoever had done it was still there!

Re: safety!!

Mac Feather — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:37:28 GMT

Thats awful,hope your work colleague is ok.

I agree with Sal- to contact the police regarding crime prevention and also about getting support for your colleague.

I used to live next door to a place where I worked and it was scarey at times, asked for better security lighting etc.

Re: safety!!

Steph Worsley — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:34:43 GMT

we had a similar sort of thing at a pracrtice i was at, the late nurse spotted some lads hanging round out yard area, thankfully one of our male vets was still there and went out to ask them what they wanted and they ran away.

after that we had a policy that no one was to be in the practice by themselves especially on a late shift (earlies werent as bad as we were close to a station and commuters parked near the practice so more people about) we had to lock up together and never leave each other on our own.

my first practice was in a really rough area and when ever I left on a late or if it was dark i would ring my parents as i was about to leave and stay on the phone with them till i was safely in my car.

done the whole going back to practice out of hours on own thing as well and really wasnt keen on it. I told a female vet off once who went and collected a dog OOH as the O had no transport and it was a GDV, on her own, I was having to go in anyway and told her she should have collected me on her way!

my thinking is that there should be 2 members of staff present at all times during normal hours and then OOH if it is not possible to have 2 staff then have a nominated member of staff each night (prob vet on call is best) to ring to say when you get there and at set intervals until you leave, if they arent rung within a set amount of time after the interval then they should ring you, if no reply then ring police and get them down there.

Re: safety!!

FINNIGAN — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:47:50 GMT

my colleague is still very shaken and bruised, she wont return to work until safety is upped, it has frightened us all and made us more aware as to how vulnarable we are, i have no dependants at home waiting for me if i was to get knocked out etc, so no one would actually miss me till i didnt show for work next day, thats now a worry, we are all afraid regarding checking animals at night too, sometimes we have to do 2am chks , we are quite isolated so doubt anyone would here us shout, just not sure how we gonna get round this, im the closest to the practise 10min drive but everyone else is a good half hour plus, all of us are women except the 2 bosses, weve all said we are not happy going to our branch surgery, this is where it happens, there is only one of us there first thing till the vet gets there at 2pm, so we are alone till then, its in a very remote spot too.

Re: safety!!

Carli Dodd — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:18:45 GMT

[quote user="Caro Laithwaite VN, MBVNA, C-SQP"]My health counts more than the practices the boss owns the place he/she can go do it.[/quote]

I am the boss. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone in!! I wouldnt expect any one else to do so, as you say there is a line to be drawn at what you can ask staff to do on behalf of the practice.

Re: safety!!

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:14:06 GMT

If an alarm goes off it should not be a lone female that checks it it should be police or male vets or 2 males if they are worried.

Sorry but nowadays l am to long in the tooth no way would l go and check it out. My health counts more than the practices the boss owns the place he/she can go do it.

Re: safety!!

Carli Dodd — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:11:21 GMT

That's horrible, i hope your colleague is doing okay.

We have a 'lone-worker/night visit' policy as part of our H&S book. If we have to go in to check patients out of hours we telephone the person who lives closest when we arrive and every half hour that we are in the building and again when we leave and we have to keep our mobile on our person. You start to think it is a bit of a hassle, but then you hear about this and you're grateful that such a policy is in place. We are lucky in that there is remote CCTV on the property next to us that covers the parking area, our alarm went off the other night and I had to go in to check so I called the neighbours and they checked everything out on the CCTV and offered to come down with their GSD and check the place out with me! Fortunately there was nothing amiss but I felt a lot more confident having them as back-up.

I think not wanting to spend money on security stuff is appalling. It's worth checking with the HSE about having to have such things in place, because I'm sure you could argue that your H&S is being compromised by the lack of it.

Re: safety!!

Sal the 1st — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 10:46:09 GMT

This happened to me when I was living above a practice and burglars broke in. It was terrifying

my advice is to first of all get in touch with your crime prevention officer at your local nick - they will usually come up with a list of recommendations to help keep folks safe, and then implement them as far as you are able. My ex boss didnt carry out any of the recommendations as didnt want to spend any money. we had no burglar alarm, in fact they couldnt even be bothered to answer the phone when I desperately needed them ( they were less than 5 mins away and it took the police over 25mins to get there and all the that time there were still 3 blokes taking the place apart downstairs and trying to break into the flat with me in it).

we had attempted break ins or break ins a couple of times following this.(in fact 3 in 5 months)

How is your colleague? has she been put in touch with victim support - something like this can be really scary. It has taken me a long time to get over this.