CASE STUDY
Keeping health providers safe and sound

A major UK healthcare services organisation* asked Blue Sky to review and analyse the security problems facing some of its Inner City health centres.

The centres concerned, mainly in deprived or relatively poor inner-city areas, had recently undergone a process of expansion in the facilities they offered to their communities.

This inevitably meant widening the spectrum of customers using the services, bringing the centres into closer contact with some of the most needy sections of society. As a consequence, this had begun to introduce new problems for the centres as they needed to work harder to provide a safe environment for their staff and their patients, and safely guarantee a welcome to all who entered.

Issues-based approach

To start with, Blue Sky put together a trained team to meet with the client's staff and discuss the issues prior to embarking on the assessment.

Taking a low key approach, the team visited all the sites, conducting detailed reviews of every aspect of the service-delivery environment, from the external safety of staff at night, to internal responses for dealing with violent or abusive patients or intruders, and the very many processes and situations facing the centres in their day-to-day operation.

A full report was delivered to the client to support a bid for central funding, confirming and detailing the need for an enhanced security environment, and specifying the requirements.

In keeping with the ethos of the organisation, and its mission to serve its communities, a variety of innovative approaches were suggested in the Blue Sky approach - including the use of localised public relations campaigns to raise awareness of security and behavioural issues.