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Friday 9th December, 2005

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By KIM JANSSEN

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Free docs to become cops

HOSPITAL employees including doctors are to be trained as part-time police officers to patrol the wards of the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.
The pioneering new scheme will see ten doctors, nurses and other hopstial staff released from normal duties once a fortnight to carry out the patrols as special constables, on full pay.
Special constables are voluntary policemen who work part time. But they receive the same training as regular officers and have the same powers.
Crime at the Pond Street hospital accounts for a quarter of all recorded crime in Hampstead, although levels have halved to below 20 crimes a month since police began regular patrols in April.
Although theft is by far the most common crime, assaults against staff, drug dealing and sex offences have all been reported in recent months.
The hospital’s board, which brought in a hiring freeze earlier this year in the wake of a £10 million cash crisis, has now agreed to break its own rule to pay for two full time staff to cover for the specials while they are on duty.
“It is important that when people come here to be treated that they feel safe,” a hospital spokesman said.
He insisted any member of trust staff, including highly paid doctors, would be considered for the scheme.
Camden police chief Mark Heath, who said he had once disguised himself as a doctor during an undercover sting at the Royal Free in the early 1980s, added: “The hospital is like a village or small town – it is a community in its own right and it needs to be policed effectively and this will help immensely.”
The first recruits are expected to be on the wards by June and if successful the hospitalwatch scheme could spread nationwide.
Nick Brough, a senior nursing manager at the hospital who hopes to be one of the ten, said: “I worked for a long time in A and E and was subjected to verbal and physical abuse and had my car broken into – it’s an unfortunate part of the job and I’d like to help protect people from it in the future.”

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