One of the expectations that employees of any organisation would expect is that the bosses would be warm to the idea of keeping their staff safe. I know that employees have an equal responsibility to ensure they keep their workplace safe and ensure that their fellow employees and customers are also kept safe.
One thing about the SSWAHS, like any other monolithic NSW Health Area, they have a lot of staff in all those hospitals full of machines that go "ping". Even the SSWAHS community health services staff (although they don't seem to have any machines that go "ping") are expected to comply with Occupational Health and Safety policies. Now one would think that staff working in SSWAHS inpatient units in SSWAHS hospitals would be well protected by barriers, security duress alarms and security personnel. Actually, that's true. Well done SSWAHS!
Now let's turn our attention to those less fortunate SSWAHS staff. Those who work within the community health settings. Okay, Bowral community health centre does now have a security barrier of sorts, and they now have had their duress alarms placed under the desks in the consulting rooms. The big red ones on the wall used to be set off accidentally by the children who thought they were for communicating with Mr Squiggle. However, there is no security staff on-site, as SSWAHS has an inherent belief that the local police will come swiftly to any brawl that might erupt in the foyer. Well let's share the optimism of SSWAHS for the moment and say that the staff at the Bowral CHC are pretty well covered under the requirements of the OH&S legislation.
But hang on a minute! Don't staff of the Bowral CHC also do home visits to tend patients in their homes, and don't a lot of people in the Southern Highlands live in pretty remote locations? Even Socrates may have to see a community health nurse for the purpose of treatment for an overdose of hemlock! And Athenian society can be a bit brutish!
So what, or who, protects the SSWAHS community nurse who sallies out of the Bowral CHC into the wilds of the Wingecarribee? Well I can tell you that besides telling the front desk where they might be going each time they go out, SSWAHS over-extends itself to send their staff off to training in self-defence measures. Wow! So I guess the 40+ year old staff members will be in their prime condition to fend off someone who wants to beat them up.
Let's take a single example for comparison. The mental health staff in an inpatient unit are all issued with duress alarms which can be activated manually or automatically. The latter is especially important if the staff are knocked down. Not only is the alarm triggered so other staff can be sent to assist but the actual location of the injured staff member comes up on computer screens in the unit. You might think that this is equipment which can only be used on-site in an inpatient unit. Not so! About five years ago the Bowral Mental Health Service collaborated with the manufacturer of the same system to design a similar duress alarm for community-based staff.
A unit was developed that worked well in even the most remote areas of the Highlands. The principle was the inpatient-type duress unit was linked to a GPS service and telecommunications provider. The duress alarm was carried by the community worker, the GPS location and sending unit was located in the SSWAHS vehicle. If the worker was attacked, or the car was disabled they could trigger the alarm and a receiver at the Bowral CHC could identify the location of the worker and the vehicle. Being portable, this duress system could be transferred from one car to another driven by any Bowral community health worker who needed to be doing home visits.
Of course, SSWAHS was informed about this new technology and a request was made to purchase a few units for the SSWAHS fleet at Bowral CHC. Socrates is reliably informed that the request was firmly knocked on the head by a senior member of the SSWAHS Executive who, it is alleged, said that if Bowral got the portable duress units every community nurse would want one. Well I guess they might. After all, it's not just dangerous for SSWAHS staff only in hospitals you know. It's also pretty wild out there in the community too!
So back to the OH&S responsibility of the employer, SSWAHS, for its community-based staff. I guess the staff will have to stick with the thrust and parry routine of self-defence they are taught, and reminded of, from time to time in their working life.
Oh, and that brilliant mobile duress alarm system developed for community-based staff? In 2009 the Mental Health Service of St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne bought and issued the units to their community care staff. Well, that's one organisation that takes its OH&S responsibilities more seriously than SSWAHS! Shame on you, SSWAHS, shame!
