Health and Community Services Complaints Commission Report on Investigation of Royal Darwin Hospital Security Arrangements for the protection of Children and Infants Paediatric Ward 5B Volume 1
Tabled paper 163
Tabled Papers for 11th Assembly 2008 - 2012; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT
2008-11-27
Deemed paper
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
English
Tabled papers
application/pdf
Copyright
See publication
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/280524
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/415989
44. In reference to the 2003 memo to staff (point 3 above). The information contained within refers to the Staff Entrance Kiosk side; the Front Entrance Foyer; the Door at the top of the former ambulance ramp (corner of the new x-ray dept); the sliding doors from the former Emergency Department onto the ramp; the Lower Ground Floor; and the ground floor Fire Stairs Doors. This memo document does not appear to have any reference to the Paediatric Ward/s egress. Of interest within the Manual was a reference to Children Leaving Hospital Campus. This policy being approved in November 2006 and due for review in May 2008. The Manual supplied to this Office in July 2008 would suggest that the review of the Children Leaving Hospital Policy in May 2008 has not occurred. The same can be concluded for the review of the Risk Management Policy which was due for review in June 2007. If the Manual provided to this investigation was the most recent available on the hospital network there are considerable problems with document and knowledge management at RDH. The only other inference is that documents supplied to the HCSCC are not what they purport to be and no care is taken when responding to the HCSCC to ensure accuracy of information supplied. Either way, it is not surprising that frontline staff at RDH appear to be unaware of policies, procedures and risk management strategies for security at Ward 5B. Note: Mr Phil Bates, Security Manager based at RDH and Senior Constable Charlton the hospital based Constable indicated that they were (as of 19 June 2008) unaware that the Paediatric Security policy existed. As this document is not referred to in the Manual and a copy has not been provided to the Manager of Security or to the Hospital Based Constable this is patently unacceptable and poor practice. HCSCC Q6: How often is the Security and Access to Paediatric Units at Royal Darwin Hospital Policy reviewed or updated and on what dates was it updated between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2007? RDH response: Policy was made effective December 2006. Date set for updating was December 2007 and Policy is currently under review (25.01.2008). HCSCC Comment: As previously stated this document was made effective 9 months after the rape of an infant and as of January 2008 was in print in draft form. This is considered to be unsatisfactory at best. It is recommended that the Paediatric Security Policy should be revisited on an annual basis or earlier in the event of a security incident. The Security Manager and the Hospital Constable should be involved in the review and a report should be available for the CNC on each ward detailing how the Policy has been completed, what steps have been taken to monitor compliance with it and the amount of training time, the content