600 Russells Hall Hospital staff waiting for updated DBS checks
Hundreds of staff at Russells Hall Hospital are awaiting refreshed criminal background checks.
Updated DBS checks have not been carried out on some 600 workers and the lack of new information has been flagged up by the hospital's safeguarding team.
Russells Hall bosses said the cases related to "cyclical three-year refresher checks" and that action was being taken to address the issue.
They said all clinical staff had received checks when employed, as legally required, and that there was no "legal requirement" for new checks.
The outstanding fresh DBS checks, which flag up criminal convictions to prevent unsuitable people working with children and vulnerable groups, were brought to the attention of hospital chiefs by the Safeguarding Board which was concerns that staff information had not been updated.
A report to the board at the Dudley Group NHS Trust, which runs Russells Hall, said: "It was noted that the Safeguarding Board had reported that programmed DBS checks were outstanding in respect of six hundred clinical staff.
"Mary Sexton (interim chief nurse) clarified that these were cyclical three- year refresher checks and that additional actions and escalation procedures were in place."
Andrew McMenemy, workforce director at the Dudley Group, said there was a "rolling programme" for up-to-date checks.
He said: "All our clinical staff are DBS checked, as legally required by NHS Employers. This issue relates to rechecks on staff which we carry out every three years. There is no legal requirement to do this; however as the safety of patients is our priority we carry out rechecks as best practice in line with other trusts.
"As this is a rolling programme, there will always be a number of staff due for rechecking. Our workforce team are supporting our wards by carrying out the DBS rechecks."
