SECURITY chiefs are planning to set up a mini police station at Blackburn Infirmary in a bid to curb the growing tide of violence and abuse against front-line hospital staff.

The permanent police base will begin operating before Millennium Eve and will form part of a new campaign aimed at reducing attacks on health workers by 20 per cent by 2001.

It will be located in the grounds of the accident and emergency department car park and will also be the central point for the coroner's officer. It will become one of the first mini police stations in the UK to be located within the grounds of a hospital.

Although police officers will not be present 24 hours a day, it will provide a base from where they can patrol the hospital site.

Nurses and other medics in the casualty unit have been calling for police reinforcements for months after they complained they were coming under the increasing threat of violence from patients.

Earlier this year nursing managers admitted that the abuse of staff had become a "terrible problem."

Hospitals chiefs have reviewed their policies towards managing aggression and violence towards staff and will launch an action plan next month.

The police station should be up and running in December and the action plan will also include:

The extension of CCTV systems.

More security guards at both the infirmary and Queen's Park Hospital.

Improved dialogue with the police.

A series of training sessions for lone workers including community-based staff.

A risk assessment to be carried out in accident and emergency and other high risk areas.

Mike Hall, site services manager at Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said: "This will be a base for the police officers to use and will obviously give us a far greater police presence.

"Although it is a base rather than a police station, it will look very much like a police station and will be next to the entrance to casualty."

The police base will be officially launched on December 10 when the trust will also kick off its new anti-violence strategy.

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