Police Federation says officers becoming ‘security guards’ for A&E is ‘crippling’ national force

9 comments

1. I recently ended up in and out of hospital recently after a heart attack. Every time I was there, the waiting room or ward was filled with police. At times, I’d see 6 officers. At the worst, several armed police. Even at quiet periods there tended to be two with one drunk. The resource drain is ridiculous.

2. Well, that and arresting hundreds of pensioners every time Palestine Action hold a sit in.

   Maybe coppers should, I dunno, stick to coppering.

3. There is a two fold problem. Firstly the number of people arrested and requiring medical attention is increasing. That’s not necessarily anyone’s fault, just a result of increasing population. For example someone who gets involved in a car accident and is arrested on suspicion of causing it.

   The second is mental health and antisocial related issues which shouldn’t be the police’s issue but the mental health teams do absolutely fuck all with crises and people needing acute and rapid care. To be fair to them they aren’t resourced to do it but they just palm the problem off onto the police and hospital emergency departments.

   A friend of mine had a crisis recently and waited TWO DAYS to see anyone from the mental health team. That would be completely unacceptable in any other branch of medicine for an emergency presentation

4. I work in several hospitals and at any bigger one it’s routine that every evening there’ll be a minimum of one police car/van/vehicle parked outside every single day. Sometimes up to 3 or 4.

5. Unfortunately people kick off at doctors and healthcare professionals so….

   Personally I wouldn’t mind being armed in A&E myself but I think it goes against the Hippocratic oath.

6. What about arresting people wearing Morph t-shirts? Is that having any impact at all….?

7. I was doing a routine inspection of a blood fridge in the ED where I work and had to find an alternative route back because a woman was kicking off at her partner,who was waiting to be seen by staff. Apparently, this was not the first time it had happened that day between those two. I regularly see patients being chased or restrained by security outside the hospital too. Thankfully, police are rarer because we have now hired proper security staff, otherwise it was down to a mix of the porters and police yo deal with violent patients.

8. I mean, it’s not like intoxicated violent people should be a medical problem either. It’s just one more social problem that the UK lumps on the NHS.

9. I’ve lived in Singapore the past 2 years and when I visit family in the UK (and Ireland) I’m shocked at the behaviour that’s tolerated here. To need police officers in hospitals is truly absurd. I don’t think I’ll ever move back to the UK purely because of how feral it is, and it only seems to be getting worse. I feel for those who don’t have the option to leave, you don’t have to live like this.

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