Safeguarding Vulnerable Hospital Patients
When anyone goes into hospital as a patient, it is typically because they are ill or in pain or need some medical treatment or procedure. Every patient is important, but some patients are classed as vulnerable, and therefore safeguarding measures need to be put into place, to ensure that vulnerable people are protected. Individuals may be classed as vulnerable if they need additional physical or emotional support.
What type of person is classed as vulnerable?
Vulnerable people may be unable to make decisions for themselves. A vulnerable patient may need help to eat, or to take exercise, or it could be urgent mental health assistance that they need. This may include:
- The elderly
- Terminally ill patients
- The frail and disabled
- Individuals with mental health problems
- Sedated or anesthetized patients
- Chronically ill patients
Children don’t generally tend to be classed as vulnerable unless they do not have a parent or guardian to take care of them.
What measures are taken to safeguard vulnerable patients?
Firstly, it’s important to hire good, reputable, trustworthy, and safe staff. A DBS check can help to verify this – this will be discussed in more detail a little later.
Secondly, if any patients have suffered any abuse, then it is essential that these are immediately reported and resolved through official channels.
Who in a hospital environment needs to DBS checked?
Anyone who works very closely with the vulnerable patients, needs to have an Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List because they will be performing regulated activity with vulnerable people, and it is essential to ensure that they are safe, and the vulnerable patients are not put at risk of ill treatment or abuse.
Everyone who works in a hospital environment with vulnerable patients should also be given rigorous safeguarding training so that they are alert to the signs of abuse, neglect, or ill treatment. They can also monitor that any friends and relatives who visit the vulnerable patient, are behaving appropriately too.
Getting an Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List
Anyone working at a hospital, in their recruitment stage, should have had an Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List. It is the hospital itself that requests this on a person’s behalf; an individual can’t request this detailed check, an individual can only request a Basic DBS Check. An Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List is the most thorough check that the Disclosure and Barring Service conduct. It will check a person’s past criminal record and will show spent, and unspent convictions, warnings, reprimands, cautions, and will request any information that is held on a person by the local police force, if it is relevant to the job role. The Barred List will check that the individual is not banned from working with children or vulnerable adults on the grounds of violence, abuse, or sexual offences.
Ensuring that all staff who come into contact with vulnerable patients have an Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List, is a good way to ensure that people working in a hospital are reliable, trustworthy and of little risk to vulnerable patients. All staff do need thorough safeguarding too, so that they can constantly watch for any signs of abuse or neglect with these vulnerable patients, and act quickly to ensure their safety if any signs are spotted.
