What would you do

[Samthedog]

Hi All,

First post so be gentle! Bit of a long one but here goes.

Ok the other half works in adult care for the local council with patients normally older that need help with personal care.
One new call they have is to a male under forty with a history of child abuse and also violence against 2 social workers.

All the team she works with have been told that they have to make this call and aid with washing and personal care etc.

Higher management have said to their direct line manager that they (those doing the calls) should not be told of his history and have no right to refuse to go into the call (he is in a halfway house type place).

Similar to above happened with a service user with HIV.

Without getting into how they found out what would you do if it was you or your other half.

So much for confidentiality.

As a care workers myself, I am unable to refuse to care for patients due to duty of care.

As long as health & safety is observed, as in, no lone workers, alarm systems etc, they have no grounds to refuse.

Not sure what HIV has to do with anything either??

Thanks for reply Jimi,

The don't carry alarms etc the call is basically a doss house for junkies etc and the HIV has nothing at all to do with it what is was trying to get a across was should you not be made aware of any special care you (as a care professional)may need to take to protect yourself.

And does the employer not have a duty of care towards its staff in making the aware of potential hazards that may be present.

If I sent someone up a step ladder that was faulty it would be me who got it I the neck as the employer !

This guy has history of violence against females

Why should HIV be disclosed to the care worker? Surely they should observe all precautions to prevent contact with blood-borne pathogens with any patient regardless whether they know their status or not?

Looks to me that there's a huge patient confidentiality issue going on at your partner's work place.

Thanks WidowWadman

you are probably correct there is an issue with confidentiality etc but obviously the line manager felt it something the team should know about
and let the cat out the bag so to speak.

i have no experience in this whatsoever but as an outsider should the care workers not be made fully aware of the situation and the past history of a patient. Would there not be extra training required to do deal with known offenders etc.

Surely being front line so to speak they should know about all situations that may be coming their way.

Again using a simple analogy if you worked for someone and they said there you go change that light bulb here are some ladders knowing that step number 7 was a bit shaky (cant see it because its a bit high up!) and they said nothing i am sure you can imagine the rest.

And there are Male workers that could do the call yet the will not send them in !

If this person has a history of attacking females then I'm really surprised female staff are being sent to support him. We had a similar issue and risk assessments were done and it was decided he'd have make support staff only.

The employer does have a duty of care to its employees as well as the people it supports. It needs raising with management.

Hi fedupandtired,

Thanks for the reply, i agree that it does but what is giving problems is that they cannot say anything without rocking the boat as they have been told by their line manager that they are not supposed to know any history.
If they did raise the point then the person that has told them ie line manager would be in trouble,they only said something because they are a close team and obviously has her own concerns for their safety. To me it stinks of bad management and policy.

It's very bad management. Of course the company should be protecting his privacy but not when it puts staff in danger. We never told anyone what had happened (I don't even know and I have access to all files) but female staff were no longer put on his rota. You can get round it without breaking confidentiality.

Anonymous call to CQC? ( your partner will know who they are). It could maybe at a push, be classed as putting him in a position where he's likely to be a danger to himself. Might be pushing it a bit but if a safeguarding issue is raised then CQC will investigate.