A NEW scheme aims to reduce verbal and physical attacks on health staff.

Health trusts across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are joining forces to tackle the problem at a conference on Thursdaylater this month.

Representatives will put their heads together at the event to share their experiences in a bid to cut aggressive incidents.

The move comes in the wake of a Government call for trusts and health authorities to cut the number of violent incidents against staff by 30 per cent over the next four years.

A TUC report released last month suggested a fifth of all employees suffer physical or verbal attacks each year, with nurses and ambulance staff facing the greatest risk. A survey last year by Industrial Relations Services suggested that NHS staff were four times as likely as other workers to fall victim to violence.

Figures from the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals in Oxford and the Horton Hospital in Banbury, show that from April to December last year 1998there were 7,000 reported incidents from staff on anything from security and back injuries to clinical practice and violence at work.

Of these, 12 per cent related to threatening and challenging behaviour, including violence, verbal aggression and racial harassment. A total of 121 incidents were recorded where staff suffered injuries inflicted by patients. Trust spokesman Mrs Mary Burrows , from the Trust, said it was an issue that was taken very seriously but the number of physical assaults against staff recorded in Oxford was lower than the national average of 14 per cent.

Challenging Behaviour Courses are being run by the trust, teaching staff to defuse and handle difficult situations.

She said: "We try to trace any trends and then put in strategies as a response, such as putting in extra security.

"We try through training and awareness to prevent any sort of incident ever occurring."

Other trusts already have policies and guidelines to protect staff. Training courses on personal safety are run by Oxfordshire Community Health NHS Trust through a team of in-house tutors.

A police office has also just opened at The Horton to provide rapid back-up for staff if they face abuse or violence.

Around 60 representatives from the various trusts have signed up for the conference which has cash backing from the Health Education Authority.

The keynote speaker will be Diana Lamplugh, who set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in 1986 after the disappearance of her daughter.

The conference is being held at the Littlebury Hotel, on February 11.

Story date: Monday 08 February

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