SLAM’s security challenge metvia ‘proven system’

Here Paul Lawrence, managing director of provider of ICT and workflow solutions, Ascom, looks at how the global communications company is assisting the Trust via its ‘state-of-the-art security technology’ – as part of an enduring 16-year partnership.

With a worldwide reputation for mental health research and treatment development, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) is a UK leader – and so are its security systems. Understandably, safety is an issue that the Trust takes very seriously. A survey by the trade union, Unison, revealed in October 2017 that 20 per cent of NHS mental health workers had been abused or attacked by a patient over the previous year,1sharply highlighting the sector’s need for security technology that works effectively. 

SLAM provides a diverse range of therapeutic services across five sites that could not be more different in terms of geography and the level of security needed. At one end of the spectrum is a new outpatient therapy unit in Brixton, while at the other is one of the largest medium secure psychiatric units in England – on a 270-acre site with extensive grounds – at the Bethlem Royal Hospital.