20 July 2021
The ANMF requested to meet with SA Police following member concerns regarding SA Police failing to lay charges for assaults, specifically where cognitive capacity or substance influence may have been in question - please see our correspondence here:
A very positive meeting was held this week by the ANMF with the Assistant Police Commissioner and senior SA Police personnel that addressed a number of areas including issues associated with laying charges for assaults, Police searching patients for weapons and other dangerous items and Police hand over to nursing staff.
At the meeting the Assistant Commissioner made clear that:
1. Laying Assault Charges
- It is SA Police policy that charges should be laid for cases of alleged assault wherever there is a prima facie case established. Police officers are required to assesses whether or not a charge should be laid based on relevant information, but they must take sufficient information in order to form that view. The question of mental capacity should, as a general principal, be for the police prosecutor, or a higher level officer reviewing the facts, to determine.
- Should members experience a situation where they do not believe this policy is being followed, please provide the ANMF with information involving the circumstances and we can raise these concerns directly with the Police Commissioner who will act on that information.
2. Police Searching for Weapons / Dangerous items
- It is expected practice that Police officers search and confiscate any weapons or dangerous items before transferring people in their custody into hospital care.
- Should members experience a situation where they do not believe this is being followed, please provide the ANMF with information involving the circumstances and we can raise these concerns directly with the Police Commissioner who will act on that information
3. Handover by Police of mental health clients to Nursing Staff in hospitals
- A committee comprising of SAPOL, SASS, SA Health and the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist has undertaken work to review the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between SAPOL and SA Health in relation to the handover of patients in need of mental health care by SAPOL to nursing staff.
- The ANMF will make enquiries of the contents and process and availability of the MOU via the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist.
We thank members for raising their concerns regarding these issues with us and look forward to ensuring improvements occur in these areas for the benefit of all members.
Violence and Fatigue
The ANMF continues to press relevant decision makers to address and eliminate Violence and Aggression and Fatigue.
This week, we took these issues directly to the CEO of Return to Work SA to encourage action that would result in the reduction of injuries by prevention. It was a positive meeting during which the CEO of Return to Work SA committed to raising our concerns and proposed solutions to Wellbeing SA and SafeWork SA with a view to exploring opportunities to work collaboratively together.
The ANMF will also approach aged care sector representative bodies to ascertain interest in addressing these issues in a productive way.
We also continue to meet with LHN representatives and the Department of Health and Wellbeing (DHW) as soon as the final report on our recent fatigue survey is available to us (we anticipate in the next 2 weeks). At the same time DHW has indicated that its survey of staff in relation to wellbeing and culture should also be available. We have agreed to meet in the second half of August to share results and attempt to agree a way forward.
We continue to encourage members with any examples of violence and aggression to notify us of their concerns so we can assist you in representing your interests.
In addition, thank you to those who participated in the ANMF fatigue survey. The response was tremendous – over 3,000 respondents - and as a result, they are still being analysed. As flagged above, we expect that we will be in a position to share and act on the results in early August.
See our letters to the Commissioner of Police Grant Stevens and Return to Work SA CEO Michael Francis.