(November 11th 2016) Tallaght Hospital has launched a new campaign to combat incidents of violence, harm or aggression against staff and patients. This newest Zero Harm campaign aims to highlight unacceptable behaviour when frustrations escalate into potential episodes of verbal and physical aggression. It is also promoting the many supports and training courses that are available for staff to reduce the level of verbal and physical aggression.
As part of this campaign, a detailed information leaflet was released to assist staff and patients. This leaflet expresses the Hospital’s zero tolerance policy towards verbal and physically aggressive behaviour as well as its core values of respect for patient autonomy, caring and openness. The leaflet also details the necessary steps to take for staff who are victims of aggression as well as the many courses and supports that are available for staff.
The Hospital provides supports to staff who are victims of aggression through the Occupational Health Department and the Emergency Department as well as the free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme.
This campaign is part of Tallaght Hospital’s ethos of “Your treatment, your choice”, “People Caring for People” and its aim to create a welcoming and care-focused environment on the site. Staff can be at risk of aggression from particularly unwell patients, as well as others. The aim of this Zero Harm campaign is to ensure that safety continues to be the first priority in the Hospital.
Dr. Daragh Fahey, Director of Quality Risk & Safety Management of Tallaght Hospital said, "Tallaght Hospital is a large campus with many thousands of people passing through every day. We aim to ensure a welcoming and safe environment, however it is sometimes necessary to highlight the steps that we may be forced to take when inappropriate behaviour occurs. This campaign will help to reaffirm our policy that we will not tolerate violent or aggressive behaviour towards our staff or other patients. It also focusses on increasing awareness of the many supports and training that are available to staff who become victims of aggression from patients or visitors, Information posters have being placed around the Hospital to highlight the importance of this policy.
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About Tallaght Hospital
Tallaght Hospital is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, providing child-health, adult, psychiatric and age-related healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds and 67 paediatric beds, a staff of 2,600 people and an annual gross budget in excess of €0.25bn. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialities. It is a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre.
Tallaght Hospital is a major teaching hospital of Trinity College Dublin - specialising in the training and professional development of staff in nursing, health and social care, emergency medicine and surgery, amongst many others. The Hospital is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group which serves a population of over 1.2 million across seven counties.
A new satellite centre is to be built at Tallaght Hospital as part of the New Children’s Hospital project and will be a key element of an integrated clinical network for paediatric services nationally.
The Hospital’s Emergency Departments catered for 45,551 Adult Attendances and 32,272 Paediatric Attendances in 2015. A further 206,169 patients were treated through the Hospital’s outpatient clinics in 2015. The Hospital’s operations are supported by 200 general practitioners in surrounding communities.
