Staff Abuse Reported in Chase Farm

 

    It was revealed yesterday that staff at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital are verbally and physically abused by patients.

 Councillor Linda McFadyen, deputy leader of Barnet Council’s Labour group said: ”Front-line staff are subject to physical or verbal abuse and they shouldn’t have to put up with it,” This comes as a shock to most readers, but staff insist that this has been going on unnoticed for some time.

   Linda McFadyen went on to say: “What I find disturbing is that quite a lot of nurses are not reporting these incidents.” The findings were held out by the Healthcare Commision (HC), they surveyed every staff working for the HNS accross the country. The findings have also claimed that one in ten staff have been assaulted by either the patients or their relavtives.”

   Along with the HC, The British Medical Association (BMA) declared their findings in January. They managed to work out similar results to the HC survey and believed that this was due to the patients frustrations, either caused by prescription drugs or of being isolated most of the time.    

   One former police officer, Leigh Marsden, sees a way in which this sort of abuse can be tackled effectively: “A face-to-face with the aggressive patient can sometimes work wonders. The ward sisters are always involved and are great. We always liaise with the staff affected and take their views into account.”

   Mr Marsden, works at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital in the security department, is still adament these reports, that shed light on the problem, will be dealt with prompley: “I am sure that the issues are under-reported but we are making inroads to reassure staff and deal with this.”