Chris Huhne

7 out of 10 hospitals failing to help police tackle knife crime – Huhne

70% of NHS hospitals in England are still failing to provide police forces with information that has been proven to significantly cut knife crime, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. This is a marginal improvement on last year, when 80% of hospitals were not sharing this information.

In the ‘Cardiff Model’, A&E wards in the city have collected information about the precise locations and times of violent incidents and shared it anonymously with the police since 2002. This led to a 40% fall in violent assaults in the first five years. 

The research, collected through Freedom of Information requests, shows:

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  • Only 44 of the 143 hospital trusts (31%) in England that have replied to the request are following the Cardiff Model
  • The situation is no better in the nine areas in England taking part in the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP), where only 18 out of 55 trusts (32%) are following the Cardiff Model. Essex had no trusts using the model
  • Violence actually increased during the first year of the TKAP. Hospital admissions for violence increased by 3% in TKAP areas and by 3.1% in other areas between 2008 and 2009

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:
 
“It is shameful that a year after we first brought this issue to the Government’s attention, seven out of 10 hospital trusts are still not sharing this vital data with the police.

“It beggars belief why anyone would ignore best practice of this kind which drastically reduces woundings.

“There is no point Labour and the Tories posturing on penalties when they won’t even endorse a proven method of what works to cut knife crime.

“Labour is missing an open goal to reduce the damage caused by the Booze Britain they have created.

“Ministers claim to be tackling knife crime but they’re not even following the Cardiff Model in their flagship TKAP areas, where violence is actually on the increase.

“Heads at the Department of Health and the Home Office must be knocked together to ensure that the Cardiff Model is used in every emergency ward in the country.”

ENDS
 
Notes to Editors

1. A spreadsheet is attached that has two sheets. The first gives the full details of the responses (or lack of them) from the 169 NHS trusts in England. NHS trusts in Scotland and Wales were not included. The second provides details of what is happening in the nine Tackling Knives Action Programme areas in England (South Wales is the tenth).

2. The responses were gained through Freedom of Information requests in which the trusts were asked the following question:

Do the Accident and Emergency Departments within your Trust pass the details of the times and locations of incidents from patients that present to you with injuries caused or suspected to be caused by violent criminal offences (including, but not limited to, gun shot wounds, stab wounds, and assaults with or without a weapon) to the relevant Police/Police Authority/Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership on a regular and anonymised basis?

3. There are 169 NHS trusts in England but 20 have no A&E department, leaving 149 relevant trusts. 44 said they were following the model; 80 said they were not; and 19 were discussing whether to implement it. Five trusts have not replied to the Freedom of Information request and 1 trust is still clarifying its answer. That is why the statistics refer to 143 trusts.

4. The Liberal Democrats undertook the same piece of research in March last year and discovered that eight out of 10 hospitals were failing to share data with the police:

http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/news/615/80_of_hospitals_failing_to_help_police_fight_knife_crime__huhne.html

5. Last year, the Government admitted that it did not keep a record of this information centrally, as the answer to this Parliamentary Question demonstrates:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081126/text/81126w0134.htm#08120135004648

It now does. This answer says that there are 103 A&E departments sharing data:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100312/text/100312w0029.htm#10031228009105
However, in 2007/08, there were 552 A&E in England:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080227/text/80227w0036.htm#08022816005400
According to these figures, 19% (103/552) of A&E departments are sharing the data.

6. The Cardiff Model was introduced in 2002 by Professor Jonathan Shepherd of Cardiff University, a face and jaw surgeon, who was dismayed at having to stitch together the faces of young victims of violent crime. The aim of the model is to improve police effectiveness and reduce Emergency Department Admissions for violent crime-related injuries. It works in Cardiff as follows:

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  • 24-hour (preferably electronic) data is collected by clerical staff in Accident and Emergency Departments of the precise location and time of the violent incident when patients first attend.
  • Anonymous data is shared monthly Hospital Trust IT Staff with the police, through a member of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP).
  • The CDRP combines police and A&E data on a monthly basis and produces a summary of violence times, locations, and weapons, allowing the CDRP to produce maps of violent crime, including knife crime, for their area.
  • This allows for the continuous implementation and updating of a prevention action plan by the CDRP violence task group. The result is a continuous tracking of violent crime trends.

7. The key statistics for the Cardiff Model:

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  • Following the introduction of the model, Cardiff saw a 40 per cent reduction in A&E violence related attendances between 2002 and 2007.
  • The city has moved from mid-table in 2002 to the safest city in May 2007 in its Home Office family of fifteen cities, and has remained at the top for three years.

8. Attached is the 2007 updated report produced by Professor Jonathan Shepherd for the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP in October 2007 entitled ‘Effective NHS Contributions to Violence Prevention: The Cardiff Model’. This contains the article by Professor Shepherd ‘Preventing Violence – Caring for Victims’ (The Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland, 5:2, pp. 114-121).

9. The following ten areas are taking part in the Tackling Knives Action Programme, which was launched in June 2008 – Metropolitan Police, Essex, Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Thames Valley, South Wales and Nottinghamshire: http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/tackling_knives.htm

10. Violent assaults actually increased by 3% in TKAP areas and 3.1% in non-TKAP areas between 2008 and 2009:
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/hospital-care/hospital-activity-hospital-episode-statistics–hes/provisional-monthly-hospital-episode-statistics-for-admitted-patient-care-and-outpatient-data-april-2009–november-2009

The figures show:

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  • Between December 2008 and November 2009 there were 43,446 finished admission episodes for assault, of these 27,064 (62.3%) were from TKAP areas and 16,382 from non-TKAP areas.
  • Between December 2007 and November 2008 there were 42,145 finished admission episodes for assault, of these 26,263 (62.3%) were from TKAP areas and 15,882 from non-TKAP areas.
  • Between these periods admission episodes for assault increased by 3.1% in England with an increase of 3% in TKAP areas and an increase of 3.1% in Non-TKAP areas.