Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust has taken personal alarms for community-based staff tasked with providing in-home services.
The products in use are Skyguard’s keyfob sized MySOS devices. The trust says it’s a means of discreet protection for lone workers to carry. Accredited to BS 8484 standards, the device comes GPS tracking. When the user raises the alarm, an alert is sent to Skyguard’s dedicated Incident Management Centre (IMC), with the GPS location. Using the alarm’s two-way audio, controllers will listen in and assess before talking to the user and taking action. Using the escalation instructions given, the controller will, if necessary, contact the local police control room, bypassing the 999 service for a faster response. All audio and actions from the incident are digitally recorded and can be used as legal evidence if required.
Tom Sanders – Health and Safety Advisor for the Trust says: “There is currently more focus on providing services out in the community. In Derbyshire, we have several areas of deprivation with high unemployment which makes relationships between community staff and patients difficult to establish and maintain.”
The device is small enough to provide protection while not being obvious to an aggressor. Sanders adds: “It’s efficient, easy to use, has great coverage and the back-up and technical support are the most impressive elements. Our staff now have more confidence going into potentially tricky situations, knowing that help is at hand should it be necessary to activate the device.”
Skyguard Marketing Director, Will Murray added: “Skyguard now provide lone worker protection to over 100 NHS Trusts across the UK and this continues to grow based on the solid reputation we’ve built across the sector in recent years.”
