Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 9, 2009 at 11:35am
The Lying Down Game: players try to outdo each other by lying down in the most original locations
Times Online Reports
Seven staff from a hospital’s accident and emergency unit have been suspended after taking part in an internet craze known as the “Lying Down Game".
Participants have to post photographs of themselves lying face down arms by their sides in unlikely situations.
The doctors and nurses who were working an overnight shift on August 14 and August 15 took turns to be photographed on resuscitation trolleys, ward floors and the hospital’s heli-pad.
The photographs were put on a Facebook page set up by A&E staff at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire. They were suspended after management were alerted to the prank and now fear they could lose their jobs.
The Lying Down Game described as “parkour for those who can’t be arsed” became an international craze earlier this summer when pictures were published of participants lying on ironing boards, cars, mountain tops and even a life size statue of a grizzly bear.
An employee at the Great Western Hospital today described the suspensions as a ”nightmare” for those involved.
He said: ”The person who started it is really worried. It reflects badly on the department and some people may lose their jobs.
“It was just some nurses and doctors on nights having fun, but photos got onto Facebook and management found out. Someone in the department leaked the group, but no-one knows who. Health and safety and infection control issues have all been broken.
“I think it’ll be serious for the one who set up the Facebook group and took the photos and I’m really glad I didn’t get involved.”
The stunt involved a total of 18 A&E and Acute Assessment Unit staff. Seven of the group have been suspended on full pay and will now face formal disciplinary hearings.
The photographs were posted on Facebook by a group calling itself the Secret Swindon Emergency Department Group. It has since been removed by the website.
A spokesman for GWH confirmed that health and safety and infection control regulations had been broken as well as the NHS and Trust code of conduct.
He refused to rule out sackings and said: ”The disciplinary hearings are yet to take place and we cannot predict the outcome.”
Dr Alf Troughton, medical director for Great Western Hospital NHS Trust, confirmed the suspensions but said that patient care had not been affected.
He said: ”A number of staff were suspended following allegations of unprofessional conduct while on night shift duty in the hospital during a weekend in August.
“This did not involve patients and we are satisfied that at no time was patient care compromised.
“The Great Western Hospital sets high standards for staff behaviour at all times and therefore takes any such breaches extremely seriously.
“It is important to reassure patients and our workforce that this was an isolated incident and staff cover was maintained at all times.
“The allegations have been thoroughly investigated and seven members of staff remain suspended pending formal disciplinary hearings.”
The Facebook page for the Lying Down Game claims to have more than 54,000 members worldwide.
It describes itself as a group for all those who “enjoy the sport of lying down in random public places to confuse people”.
It adds: “The originators of the Lying Down Game cannot be held liable for any accidents, injuries or criminal proceedings resulting from participating in the Game.”
Simon Newell, a spokesman for the union UNISON represents nearly 250,000 nurses, yesterday urged the Swindon health trust to ”consider past service” before dismissing any of the staff involved.
He said: ”We wouldn’t condone unprofessional conduct in any work place environment, although we do acknowledge that staff in hospitals constantly work under a great deal of pressure and scrutiny.
“This sort of incident is unfortunate but rare. We are led to believe that a number of codes may have been breached, although we also understand that at no time patients’ safety or healthcare was directly compromised.
“That being the case, we would urge the Trust, when deciding upon the future of these highly skilled staff, to consider recent events within the context of the good services these staff have provided in the past.”
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LATIMES Reports
Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said today that they have looked into security breaches involving the investigation of Michael Jackson’s death, including hundreds of improper views of the pop star’s death certificate and the discovery of weaknesses in two other computer systems in which more sensitive records were stored.
At least a half-dozen coroner’s staff members were among those who inappropriately accessed Jackson’s death certificate, officials said today. Within two weeks of his death, the certificate had been viewed more than 300 times.
In some cases, staff members appear to have printed copies before it became a public record. Earlier this month, coroner’s officials warned employees to cease, cautioning that they had previously been admonished about the security hold on the Jackson case.
"There's only one person in the investigation of Mr. Jackson who needed to have a copy of the death certificate, and that was the investigator," said Craig Harvey, chief coroner investigator.
Harvey called any access of the Electronic Death Registration System for personal use “not appropriate.”
In a July 9 e-mail reviewed by The Times, a coroner’s captain told staff that future abuses of the system would result in disciplinary action. Staff members who had printed a copy of the death certificate were advised to destroy it.
Harvey said he learned that coroner’s employees were inappropriately accessing Jackson’s death certificate after he received a tip alleging that a funeral home employee created a fake death certificate for Jackson in the computer system.
Harvey did not uncover any fraudulent death certificate, but did discover the names of coroner's employees who had looked at the record even though they had no role in the Jackson investigation.
He said he had not contacted any law enforcement agency about the actions, saying he believed that internal rules had been broken, not any laws.
Death records in the EDRS system, which is state-supervised, can be accessed by anyone with a state-issued password, including employees at coroner’s offices, funeral homes, hospitals, and county and state registrar's offices. Users input information on death certificates that must be signed off on by doctors or coroners and made public by the state registrar.
Coroner's employees are supposed to look up cases "strictly in the performance of your official coroner duties,” according to the e-mail reviewed this month.
In addition to issues with the electronic access to Jackson’s death certificate, Harvey said that his office also had trouble securing two other computer systems in which they kept Jackson’s death investigation reports.
Investigation reports, which are not public records, typically are accessible only to investigators and other employees with office-issued passwords. Once employees log in, they can access others’ investigations — unless the reports are locked.
The investigator’s reports on Jackson's death were locked from the start, Harvey said, meaning access should have been available only to employees with the rank of captain or higher. Because of the high interest in Jackson, coroner’s officials took the added precaution of restricting access to only a few administrators. Harvey said the hard copy of the investigation was stored under lock and key.
Still, after the investigation started, they discovered vulnerabilities in the computer systems that might have allowed employees unauthorized access, Harvey said. He declined to say what those weaknesses were.
“We took extra steps to plug those holes,” he said.
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