From Greenham Common to Riots in A&E: My Life in Security

Peter Finch, who was security adviser at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust at the time of this interview, began his long career in security in 1978, joining the Royal Air Force as an RAF Policeman.

Becoming provost officer in 1986 he specialised in counter intelligence and also undertook counter-terrorism, nuclear security and Royalty, diplomatic and VVIP duties just as the cold war was thawing.

Working in the NHS for 14 years Peter recently took on the top security job at the Coventry Building Society.

IFSEC Global: Is there much difference managing security in a hospital compared to your other roles in security?

Peter Finch: In principal, no. The theory of security and security management is pretty much the same.

Crime prevention is pretty much the same. I looked after nuclear weapons when I was in the Royal Air Force, albeit on a smaller scale. We have radioactive isotopes in imaging which could create a dirty bomb if strapped to enough explosives.

We have harmful pathogens and toxins in the pathology department that could be used for bio-terrorism. We have people and equipment to protect from damage and theft, just as we protected personnel and aircraft, whether from the Russian Spetsnaz, the IRA or the women at RAF Greenham Common – which was quite an adventure.

IG: So what happened there then?

PF: There was a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s with a lot of women protesting against the deployment of US cruise missiles at Greenham Common. At the peak there were almost 5,000 military personnel defending the base from peace campaigners, some of whom could be violent and aggressive.

IG: What was the most memorable incident?

PF: Thursdays were memorable. Giros were delivered by the postman to the peace camps and the women would cash them, buy cider and then try to scale the fence at night. We had military vehicles chasing them across the airfield.

Instructions were issued that when we came into physical contact with the women we had to change our uniforms because they were generally unclean.

One guy had one of his fingers cut off with bolt croppers, another was actually murdered. Piano wire was strung up between trees to catch the local horse riders on the common, pot holes were dug out and filled with water to break horses’ legs.

One summer we had to move the security force away from one part of the perimeter fence because the nearby forested area had been used as toilet and the smell was so bad that some of the guys were actually being sick.

IG: There a few more important roles in the world than nuclear security – I don’t think that’s hyperbole…

PF: It was the height of the cold war, where we exercised daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and Russian special forces.

I don’t want to discuss UK nuclear security but it’s a measure of our success that none of our weapons are missing; some of Russia’s former satellites are now struggling to account for theirs.

IG: So what have been the most dramatic incidents during your time in the NHS?

PF: We’ve had the Handsworth riots on two occasions. Handsworth is literally next door to us.

And during the Birmingham riots three guys were murdered some 300 yards from our A&E department.

When the injured are brought in or self-present their families and friends also come in, and suddenly you can have dozens of people wanting to come in with the potential to lose control of the hospital.

So we need to protect and defend the hospital pretty much in the same way that you defend a military base to keep it operating.

By their nature hospitals are open and welcoming, so we need a way of securing the Trust by locking our doors automatically. We then triage outside to determine who needs to come inside.

IG: Can you give an example of where you’ve handled a dicey situation with aplomb?

PF: We can talk about the Birmingham Race Riots in 2005. A story circulated that a young Asian woman had been assaulted and raped by a group of South Asian men in nearby Handsworth.

The story was completely false but it ripped through the community. It ended up with the police and ambulance service creating a triage point at Handsworth but the emergency services were bringing in victims and the public were turning up at A&E – what you call self-presenting.

Cars were smashed with bricks, some elderly Asian men were on the verge of a riot outside the A&E dept, a police officer had been shot and was in A&E, as was a young boy who had also been shot.

There were different factions within A&E, many with stab wounds, machete wounds, and we had to separate these groups and create separate clinical streams for treatment.  It worked but we didn’t know if they had weapons underneath their coats so the nurses and doctors were working in a real climate of fear.

IG: Wow, that’s pretty incredible. TV hospital dramas often exaggerate real life – but that sounds more dramatic than anything offered on Casualty.

PF: Yes. We see people at the depths of despair, we see the homeless with little hope. Some are ex-military.

Women who’ve been assaulted by their husbands, husbands who’ve been assaulted by their wives. People of all ages with mental health issues, alcoholics, people who are suicidal. We see it all.

A significant issue is dementia, which will get a lot worse over the next 20 years. This will be a challenge not just within the NHS but across the world.

IG: Budgets are getting tighter, healthcare’s growing more expensive…

PF: It gets more expensive, but it becomes cleverer. As an example we’re doing away with stethoscopes in the not-too-distant future, replacing them with digital hand-held devices.

As a security manager it’s important to keep up with what’s going on in the NHS. If we can prevent theft or damage, then we don’t have to replace that equipment, so that money goes into healthcare. That’s what we’re here for.

IG: How bad is the problem of nurses and doctors being assaulted?

PF: We had over 180 nurses assaulted in this trust in the last financial year and of those over 80% were assaulted by people with dementia, who were confused, mentally ill or reacting adversely to a clinical intervention.

Imagine that you’re in a theatre, coming round from an anaesthetic and all you can see are grey objects floating around you – you will lash out with your arms and legs to defend yourself and unintentionally assault a nurse.

Healthcare Security is a specialist area but functional security is no different from a shopping centre, building site, commercial enterprise – the aim is to protect the organisation’s assets. In my organisation some of those critical assets are the staff.

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