Security boost: Victorian hospital ERs to get secure safe rooms

VICTORIAN emergency departments will get secure safe rooms and more security guards after a surgeon was attacked outside a Melbourne hospital.

Box Hill Hospital emergency department. Picture: Steve Tanner

• Hospitals turning into beds for boozers
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VICTORIAN hospital emergency departments will get secure safe rooms for potentially violent patients and more security guards after the latest serious assault on a medical worker.

Surgeon Mr Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann is still fighting for life, a fortnight after being assaulted outside Box Hill Hospital.

Following last Friday’s meeting with hospital and union representatives over the Box Hill attack, Health Minister Jill Hennessy has doubled the Health Service Violence Prevention Fund to $40 million, so hospitals can introduce new safety measures.

An advertising campaign will also hit Victorian screens from Tuesday night.

Box Hill hospitals surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann

Minister for Health Jill Hennessy. Picture: Chris Eastman

Ms Hennessy will also announce the introduction of “behavioural assessment” rooms at the Austin, Casey, Northern, Warrnambool Base and Geelong’s University hospitals.

The purpose-built secure rooms will allow better assessment and management of aggressive patients who may be a risk to themselves, emergency department staff, or others.

Ms Hennessy said more security guards would be posted at all Victorian hospitals that have emergency departments, especially at those seen as danger hot spots.

“Our healthcare workers care for us at our most vulnerable, and they deserve to be safe and respected in the workplace,” Ms Hennessy said.

“Violence or aggression of any kind is not just part of the job,” she said.

“To tackle this insidious problem, we know that we need a number of different responses. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

“Our health professionals save lives, and they don’t deserve to be punching bags.”

The Health Service Violence Prevention Fund allows health service administrators to apply for funding for projects they believe will have the greatest impact.

Under the first two rounds of the funding, hospitals have installed CCTV systems, security glass and doors, personal alarms, and swipecard systems.

Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann, a cardiac surgeon, remains in the Alfred Hospital in a critical condition after he was hit to the head and fell to the ground near the hospital entrance on May 30.

He was said to have asked a man to stop smoking.

Joseph Esmaili, 22, from Mill Park, has been charged with intentionally causing serious injury, and has been remanded to appear in court on August 24.

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