“Racist abuse” warning letter blunder

A hospital security team wrongly accused a member of the public of “verbally aggressive and racist” behaviour towards staff due to a “clerical error”, a report says.

A report, due to go before the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust this week, says the blameless person received a warning letter intended for the real culprit.

Security management specialist Jon Simpson writes that the trust apologised unreservedly and re-sent the letter to the correct address. His report does not give any details about either person, nor where the incident took place.

 One other complaint, following an incident where a relief security guard spoke “unsympathetically and inappropriately” to a patient, was upheld, the Annual Security Report says.

  In 2019-20, Mr Simpson writes, five complaints were received citing concern over actions of security staff at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital.

 “In three instances these concerns formed part of a wider complaint about the clinical care received by patients,” he adds.

Reviews by the trust manager cleared security staff of wrongdoing, and no further action was taken in any of these cases, Mr Simpson adds.

“Two further complaints were as a direct result of security team actions,” he writes.

“One matter resulted from a clerical error that resulted in a warning letter regarding the behaviour of a patient being sent to the wrong person.

“The letter accused the recipient of being verbally aggressive and racist towards staff.

“The complaint was upheld and an unreserved apology made to the (wrong) recipient of the letter.”

Mr Simpson adds, in a footnote, that “the letter was then sent to the correct recipient”.

The second incident, he adds, “concerned unsympathetic and inappropriate words said by a relief security guard towards a patient”. The trust apologised to the patient for this.

 Mr Simpson writes that, under the NHS Standard Contact, care providers are required to publish an annual security report.

His report describes the trust’s three-step policy for dealing with violence and aggression in its hospitals. All staff are encouraged to use “conflict resolution techniques” in the first instance. Nearly 1,400 frontline staff had face-to-face conflict resolution training that year, and a further 767 received it remotely.

The second stage involves calling hospital security officers, who all wear body-worn cameras, and the last stage is to call the police.

Mr Simpson’s report includes examples of cases where abusive patients and visitors have received criminal convictions, including prison sentences.

SaTH’s trust board will discuss his report when it meets remotely on Thursday, October 8.