19.09.14
A&E to share violent crime attendee data with police
A new initiative will see A&E departments share data about attendees injured by violent crime with the police, the Department of Health has announced.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre has published a new Standard on Information Sharing to Tackle Violence (ISTV). Under the Standard, major NHS A&E departments in England will collect and share non-confidential, aggregated data about attendances involving violent crime with Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs).
The information that will be shared includes the time and date of the incident and arrival in A&E, the specific location of the incident and what weapon or body part was used to conduct the assault.
ISTV is part of the government’s commitment to reduce knife and gun crime. By encouraging A&Es to share non-confidential information about the location of violent crimes the police can target crime hotspots with stop-and-search measures.
The Information Standard is being introduced following work by the Cardiff Violence Prevention Programme, which indicated that this approach could reduce the severity of injuries and A&E attendances resulting from violent incidents by approximately 35%.
ISTV has been developed with the National College of Policing, Association of Chief Police Officers, Public Health England and NHS England. The Department of Health is overseeing and sponsoring the implementation of the programme.
(Image: c. Andy Smith)
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