Feature Healthcare Sector Security Read more online at www.securitymattersmagazine.com
Looking Beyond COVID-19
Of late, there have been lots of articles, blogs and webinars wherein the discussion is
focused on what life will look like post-COVID. Each has been interesting in their own
way, but have we really grasped the opportunity to grab the security sector, tip it
upside down, give it a shake and move into the 21st Century with a changed mindset?
Jayne King responds to that key question in great detail
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Let’s begin with an analogy.
Recently, talk has turned towards air
traffic control and the routing of civilian
aircraft across the UK. These flight
paths, themselves originally designated
during the 1950s, have only increased in
number over the years and, although
acknowledged as being inefficient, fuel
excessive and yielding longer flights, an
opportunity to say ‘Stop’ and redesign
the airways could never be envisaged.
Until COVID-19 emerged, that is.
Some of the pre-designated flight
paths are now significantly shorter,
thereby saving considerably on fuel.
That has to be good news due to
curtailed flight times. Indeed, this is
good news, but the salient point to be
made here is that a major industry
sector has been able to redraw the lines
and, in doing so, energise efficiencies
that not only benefit the consumer, but
also the planet at large.
In parallel, then, what can we do in
the security sector? There’s no escaping
the fact that some elements of its client
base – notably so the hospitality sector –
have been left utterly devastated by
COVID-19, with the socialising aspect
so central to clubs, bars, theatres and
music venues becoming, in some cases,
non-existent. In turn, this then affects
the livelihoods of the licensed security
staff working at such venues. That said,
it can also realise opportunities.
Evolving role
When talking about COVID-19, the
date of Monday 23 March 2020 is always
referenced as that was the beginning of
the national lockdown imposed by the
Government. However, healthcare
organisations had been dealing with the
issue for some time (an example being
the national media’s reporting of
COVID-19 patients in early February).
London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’
Hospital is a designated High
Consequences Infectious Disease Centre
so its clinical team members are highly
skilled in dealing with infectious
diseases, operating alongside a
designated clinical unit with enhanced
security measures. When the first
patients were being received, ‘full
hazard’ personal protective equipment
(PPE) was used to transfer these patients
around the organisation, itself a very
labour-intensive process.
One patient being moved from a
ward for a CT scan could take up to 1.5
hours and involved between eight and
ten staff members securing the route
and deep cleaning post-transport.
Importantly, the security staff were
pivotal in the securing of routes to
ensure staff and patient safety alike.
In the run-up to the national
lockdown, the role of the healthcare
security officer duly began to evolve. On
a daily basis, those officers were dealing
with welfare issues relating to our staff,
along with our own anxieties around the
spread of the disease and the emotional
and mental health factors involved. The
majority of City-based security staff are
users of public transport, of course,
working diligently on the front line and
providing for their families.
With the escalation of the pandemic
and the increasing numbers of patients
being admitted, the organisation
necessarily stepped up its resilience plan.
We began to increase security staffing
levels which included the senior
management team moving to seven-day
cover with split shifts during the day to
provide greater support to the teams. All
the while, our central mantra was: ‘It’s a
marathon, not a sprint’.
One of the shifts in priorities for NHS
security managers has been the
definition of critical assets. We’ve all
heard the stories of inflated prices being
sought for hand sanitiser and face masks
(both items widely available in
healthcare organisations). In addition,
there was the shortage of medical
equipment such as ventilators and
medical gases. These daily use products
were now on the highly desirable and
profitable list of would-be criminals.
We also saw the emergence of the
Nightingale Hospitals, with the first one
at the ExCeL Centre in London’s
Docklands quickly followed by others
nationwide. I was fortunate enough to
be asked to advise on the set-up to take
a large events venue and make it
security-safe for clinical use. Due to its
prominence and the national situation,
advice was provided via the CPNI
Framework and guided by the principles
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