Stop Oxevision

I worked in Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough. This is a secure inpatient hospital where most patients are on sections and are required to stay minimum of 12 months. When I first started I was already aware of the Oxehealth system being used in our seclusion rooms only as this was to help monitor heart rate and breathing for patients in crisis times. When I began, this system was very faulty and didn’t work most of the times but the cameras did work and that’s what we used for those scenarios. 

After working there for 2 years we had it “trialled” in my ward which was a low secure female ward and a medium secure male ward. We had it explained to the staff first on what it would be and how it worked. Then the patients were given a few sessions to explain how it worked and what the staff would be able to monitor. However they were not told that the camera’s had a clear view of their room. When you started up the Oxehealth system it would initially be a blurred image to be able to monitor their heart rate and breathing, which as a staff member I checked on occasion for patients who were sick with the flu and covid to check if they were alright. My main goal in checking these vitals we could get was if the patients needed their observations taken (blood pressure, temp, heart rate etc) and they were in a very deep sleep, I would opt to just check those two vitals and let them sleep. 

As a male staff member it was uncomfortable being asked to check the cameras to see what a patient was “up to”. When I did I admit I fell into the pattern of checking these cameras when I knew patients were distressed to check on their safety, in between doing the physical checks. I would always do a physical check, open the door, chat to patient or look through the observation window before opting to the cameras. There were times these cameras helped play a part in keeping patients safe as we caught patients in distressing moments with these cameras. I am not saying these cameras are a solution to keeping people safe, far from it. They only helped on a small number of occasions. These cameras would be able to see inside patients bathrooms if they left the door open, the cameras had a clear view 99% of the time, very rarely would they be blurred and they were very detailed and you could watch a patient’s every last movement in their bedroom. Some staff members I worked with, opted for checking these instead of doing the physical checks. Which I found disgusting and I would end up doing the physical checks for them instead. 

My overall view of the Oxehealth system is that I believe it was only useful in seclusion scenarios when patients are extremely distressed and possibly unpredictable. 

I felt uncomfortable having these cameras in a ward with vulnerable women who have all but known anything but abuse in their lives. 

I will admit my fault in using the Oxehealth as I fell into that culture of wanting to check on distressed patients between the physical checks, but this was unacceptable. I should have been checking on patients more frequently and engaging them more. 

The hospital I worked at when I was there was intending on putting this site wide, however since I left last year I have no idea if this was implemented. 

These cameras were not needed in the patients bedroom’s in my opinion. If patients required monitoring then they should be on eyesight observations. These cameras did invade privacy as the patients were not informed there would be a clear image. The leaflet provided stated that it would only be a blurred image. 

Oxehealth makes staff members lazy when it is on a ward, they opt to check this instead of engaging with a patient. 

There were only a a handful of times the Oxehealth helped me as a staff member and I will admit it did help me in saving patients in these very few scenarios. Other than that they were not needed and just was a way of controlling and monitoring patients.