Promised safety alarms not delivered

Four out of five community nurses do not have access to a personal safety alarm despite a government pledge to fund mobile communication devices three years ago.

A survey by the nursing magazine Nursing Times found that 80% of community nurses have yet to be supplied with a device.

In March 2005, then health secretary John Reid announced that up to 100,000 NHS staff working alone would be able to use an Identicom device supplied by South Yorkshire firm Connexion2.

The pledge to provide alarms for community staff was reiterated by health secretary Alan Johnson in September 2007, when he announced an additional £97m for the NHS, of which £29m was to be spent on safety alarms.

Nursing Times said it understood that the government was now tendering for a private company to supply 30,000 alarms by April 2009.

Anne Duffy, chief executive of the Community District Nurses Association, said: ‘These alarms should have been introduced a long time ago and I think that just giving alarms is not going to be enough.

"Community nurses need some kind global satellite positioning device to track exactly where they are and to get help to them as quickly as possible when they need it.’

Richard Hampton, head of the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management service, told NT that trusts should not wait to buy personal safety technology for their staff. "If a health body has identified a need to protect their staff they should be providing it now," he said.

The survey of 400 nurses also showed that 86% of respondents felt they needed more protection when doing their jobs and that nearly 90% were worried they could be at risk unless they are given safety training in working in the community.

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