About St Georges Hospital

With 12 in-patient wards and a large number of outpatient clinics, St Georges Hospital is the main treatment centre for acute mental health problems in the South Staffordshire NHS Trust.

The hospital’s 400 staff look after patients with a wide range of mental health problems from young people experiencing their first episode of psychosis to mentally disordered offenders who have committed a criminal offence as well as inpatient care for elderly patients with dementia.

The Challenge

Following a review of internal security systems, the trust identified the need to introduce better protection for frontline staff with a focus on updating the staff attack system. Integration was a major requirement by the trust as they required a system that linked into existing security systems elsewhere in the hospital.

On the wards, staff have control screens in the central ward office and use a paging system from a different provider. The hospital needed a system that would seamlessly integrate with the pre-existing security framework, whilst taking on board the fact that the previous system only worked with its own proprietary components.

The Solution

Apart from the physical installation on the wards and in the gardens, the new Pinpoint System was configured to work on the trust’s network. Given that the installation had to take place while the wards were occupied and without interrupting the daily running of the hospital, it needed to be carefully scheduled over quite a significant period of time.

The external installation in the gardens had its own particular challenges. The receivers had to be positioned carefully so that the sun would not interfere with the functionality.

Pinpoint installed the system throughout the hospital and tackled the challenges of coverage in the outdoor space of the hospital.

The extensive gardens play an important role in the recovery of patients, whilst the previous system didn’t cover the outside space, which made it more difficult for the staff supervising the gardens.

In a large hospital like St. George’s, a staff panic alarm is activated almost every day therefore, the trust brief to source a high performance, easy to use and reliable staff safety system with mass coverage was met thanks to Pinpoint’s ingenuity and innovation.

The Results

The introduction of Pinpoint meant the trust could protect more staff in more areas of the hospital than ever before at a slightly lower cost than that of the previous system.

The solution provided by Pinpoint ensures the system provides effective coverage and works in all weather conditions.

“Pinpoint handled the installation professionally with minimum disruption to the wards. The engineers did a really great job. Mental health wards can be particularly challenging locations to install products without disrupting our service users.

“Feedback from the users of the system has been positive. It is easier to use, requires very little training and the devices are more robust.

“Integration into our IT network wasn’t easy or straightforward, Pinpoint made some bespoke modifications to get the system to talk to our IT system as well as to work alongside a different paging solution.

“Working with Pinpoint has been a positive experience. The ward staff are happy to have a reliable panic system and we, in the technology department, appreciate the personal dedication of the engineers and the very flexible service we receive from Pinpoint. They have taken a lot of time to install, explain and service the system. Any queries or maintenance issues are dealt with very quickly and competently.”

Martyn Perry, Head of Programme Management Office and Assistive Technology Strategy Lead at St. George’s Hospital, South Staffordshire NHS Trust

To find out more about staff personal security systems used in hospitals across the UK, please contact the Pinpoint team.