Police officer on patrol at The Royal Oldham Hospital

PC Holly Mills with A&E clinical matron Julie Winterbottom at The Royal Oldham Hospital

Patients being cared for at The Royal Oldham Hospital have had their safety increased following the introduction of a full time police officer at the hospital.

The pilot scheme which was launched on 1 April 2014 will see an officer from the Oldham Division join staff at the hospital.

The move is hoped to help reduce the number of police call outs to the hospital to support staff.

Superintendent Denise Worth for Oldham Division, said: “We want this role to highlight to the hospital and the local community that we are committed to maintaining a visible police presence at the hospital.

“It demonstrates our continued drive to ensure that The Royal Oldham Hospital is a safe environment for all of the people it supports.”

PC Holly Mills from the Oldham Central Neighbourhood Policing Team will be based full time at the hospital to reduce demand on police and support those members of staff.

She said: “I am looking forward to this role and to working closely with staff at the hospital to ensure it remains a safe and secure environment for staff, patients and visitors.

Glynis Jones, Security Management Specialist from The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHSTrust, said: “The hospital and the police have always worked well together, but having Holly as our own dedicated police officer is going to make a big difference to our staff, patients and visitors.

"We will now be able to be work more proactively to keep our hospital safe. Hopefully when other police divisions see how well this partnership is working we will have dedicated officers on our other sites.”