Police needed at Logan Hospital to stop attacks on staff

ATTACKS on medical staff by boozed-up and aggressive patients have become so common at this southeast Queensland hospital there are calls for a permanent police presence on site.

LOGAN Hospital needed its own police station to curb attacks on nursing staff by aggressive patients affected by booze and drugs.

Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates, a trained registered nurse, made the comment after a visit to the hospital last week.

She said there had been a 19 per cent increase in assaults on doctors and nurses since 2015-16.

This year, there have been 142 physical and verbal assaults on staff at the hospital. Staff endured 163 attacks last year, a 34 per cent drop from 250 in 2016.

This month, performance data for Queensland emergency departments showed Logan and Redland hospitals had the worst records in the state for getting patients off stretchers and into hospital beds.

Almost half of all patients, 55 per cent, transferred to Logan Hospital by ambulance waited more than 30 minutes before being treated.

Ms Bates slammed the government for ignoring ramping, which she said aggravated patients.

“A Police Beat at the hospital would deter some of the attacks on staff but it would also mean officers could lay charges before people are discharged,” she said.

“They would also be on hand to take blood alcohol readings. But sadly, we’ve seen a 19 per cent increase in assaults on our hardworking doctors and nurses since 2015-16.

“Our hospital staff don’t deserve to be treated like punching bags when they go to work.

“Worse still, ambulance ramping at Logan Hospital is now at 45 per cent, the worst in the state and more than 50 per cent of patients at Logan aren’t being seen within clinically recommended time frames.

“That only serves to agitate patients who then can turn on staff. Despite wall to wall representation, promised hospital upgrades are years away from completion.”

Ms Bates said the last major upgrade to the hospital was in 2014.

Dr Stephen Ayre has been discussing a police beat at the hospital with the Logan Police District.

Logan District Police and Logan Hospital executive director Dr Stephen Ayre have discussed setting up a permanent police beat at the hospital since July last year.

Their next meeting on the issue will be in October.

Logan Bayside executive director Dr Jacinta Powell said the majority of patients were respectful and there was no correlation between ramping and violent behaviour at the hospital.

“This (ramping) continues to be a challenge and we are working with our QAS colleagues to expedite transfers through alternative models of care and the addition of rapid transfer nurses,” she said.

“Logan Hospital’s location in one of Queensland’s biggest growth corridors means we will continue to face increased demand for our services and we have a number of measures to improve bed availability until the delivery of extra beds through the Logan Hospital expansion project.

“No area of the hospital is immune from the threat of violence with some clinical areas such as dementia care, mental health and emergency more prevalent for violence against our frontline health workers.”

Logan Hospital.

Logan Hospital is in the state’s top three busiest Emergency Departments and has had a 16.8 per cent increase in Emergency Department presentations in the past five years with 89,990 presentations last year, up from 87,695 in 2016.

In a bid to keep aggressive behaviour to a minimum, the hospital has employed three Emergency Department Ambassadors to keep an eye on people in the waiting room.