Further patient attacks on Port Lincoln Hospital emergency department staff reignite “urgent” calls for 24/7 security
A major hospital has reported more patient attacks on staff just a week after the union demanded dedicated security in response to a string of violence.
Port Lincoln
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Further patients attacks on a regional emergency department staff have been reported in a major South Australian hospital, just a week after the union made a desperate plea for increased security.
Port Lincoln Health and Hospital Service workers have been the target of a string of violent incidents and say they are working in fear after a man smashed through doors and a nurse was reportedly punched in an unrelated attack.
Last week the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation chief executive Professor Elizabeth Debars made an “urgent” call for the introduction of permanent, 24/7 on-site restraint-trained security guards saying it was “matter of life or death”.
“The staff are scared, they are scared going to work and they should not be looking over their shoulder, they should be getting on with the business that they do best and that’s caring for our community, Prof Dabars said.
“It is disgraceful and shameful that staff, visitors and patients are being subjected to such a risky environment,” she said.
In 2019, an emergency department nurse was so badly bashed by a patient in 2019, she now suffers from facial scarring and post traumatic stress disorder.
Prof Debars said a SafeWork SA report in the wake of the assault recommended security guards be stationed at the hospital but “nothing happened”.
“Is it going to take a death?”
Assoc Prof Debars said hospitals in Port Augusta and Whyalla had recently committed to around-the-clock security after 22 assaults on nurses were reported in just over a month.
On Sunday, the emergency department doors were smashed after a “violent and aggressive man” weighing 160kg allegedly forced his way in before fleeing.
He was later returned by police and admitted for drug and alcohol intoxication.
The 26-year-old local was charged with property damage and will appear at the Port Lincoln Magistrates Court at a later date.
The following day a nurse was allegedly punched in the stomach by a patient on Ward B but police say there is no record of the incident.
The attacks follow two incidents on the same ward last month with another nurse attacked by a 52-year-old man.
Two days later a doctor was punched and staff members spat on by a 29 year old man presenting under the Mental Health Act with the town’s entire on-duty police force was called to restrain him. SAPOL reported neither incidents were of “criminal nature.”
Last week ANMF revealed 91 code black alarms – raised in situations of patient violence but also a preventive measure – have been used at the hospital since 2016, with 25 within three months of this year.
In a statement EFNLHN said no staff or patients were harmed in the October incidents and it was committed to improving staff safety.
The Eyre Far North Local Health Network has been contacted in relation to the November attacks.
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