Guidance for Dealing with Police and other Public Bodies

Introduction and Background

The guidance provided in this document is to assist Trust staff when dealing with enquiries from the Police, the Coroner, Social Services, the Health and Safety Executive and other external agencies.

Where appropriate, this document refers to other Trust Policies, which may provide more detailed and comprehensive guidance. Further guidance may also be available from the Trust’s Data Protection Officer and Information Governance Manager (Jane Townsend), Caldicott Guardian (Dr David Fluck), and Senior Information Risk Officer (Laura Ellis-Philip).

In certain circumstances, it will be necessary to consider this policy in conjunction with guidance published by The Department of Health; the General Medical Council; the Nursing and Midwifery Council and other legislative changes. Useful contact and website details are listed at the back of this document.

The guidance contained within this policy must not be considered to be exhaustive. It is not possible to account for every possible scenario or eventuality. In certain circumstances, it will be necessary to seek advice from more senior colleagues as necessary. This is defined as follows:

During office hours this could include the Head of Patient Experience & Involvement, Associate Director of Quality, Matrons, General Managers or Executive Directors.

Policy Details

See also:

• Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures Manual
• Medicines Management Policy
• CD SOP W003: Ward CD – Administration & Wastage
• Missing Patient Policy
• Safeguarding Adults at Risk Policy
• Guidance for Doctors on Post Mortem Examinations
• Incident Reporting Policy
• Handling the Media Policy
• Mental Capacity Policy
• Surrey Multi-Agency Information Sharing Protocol (MAISP)
• Confidentiality and Data Protection Policy
• Information Security Policy
• Patients Property Policy
• Policy for the Management of Violence and Aggression
• Security Policy
• Health and Safety Policy