Hospitals fail to share knife crime information with police

Date published: 09 April 2010

Pennine Acute Trust, the Trust that runs Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield Hospital, North Manchester General and Oldham Royal, does not share knife crime information with the police - information that has been proven to significantly cut knife crime.

Recent research has revealed that the Trust is one of 99 of the 143 hospital trusts in England that are not following the 'Cardiff Model'.

In the ‘Cardiff Model’, A&E wards collect information about the precise locations and times of violent incidents and share it anonymously with the police. This model first started in 2002 and has led to a 40% fall in violent assaults in the first five years.

Councillor Richard Baum said, “The NHS and Police are working together for the good of Bury. I think it's important that decisions about sharing intelligence like this are made at a local level, respecting both patient confidentiality and the need to try and reduce crime”.