Hundreds of occupational violence and aggression incidents recorded at Barwon Health

Barwon Health workers have been the victim of hundreds of daily violent and aggressive altercations since last year.

Hundreds of violent and aggressive acts towards Geelong’s health staff have been recorded last financial year, new Barwon Health figures have revealed.

But it’s not all bad news. The figures show a drop from the previous year, largely due to eased Covid restrictions meaning more patients were able to welcome visitors.

Barwon Health recorded 767 occupational violence and aggression (OVA) incidents across its facilities in 2021-22, down from 838 the previous financial year.

An OVA incident is recorded when an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted during their employment.

Barwon Health's Lee Jeffery. Picture: supplied

Barwon Health head of people and culture Lee Jeffery said verbal abuse made up almost half of all OVA incidents.

“The majority of incidents involve elderly patients or residents who are impacted by dementia or cognitive decline,” she said.

“Substance-affected patients make up a small proportion of incidents.”

Ms Jeffery said Barwon Health had seen a reduction in OVA incidents last financial year for the second consecutive year, with a drop of about 8.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

Code greys dropped from 2352 in 2020-21 to 1887 last financial year.

A code grey is an organisation-level response to violent, ­aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour, exhibited by patients or visitors towards others or themselves, which creates a risk to the health and safety of staff and patients.

It is understood one of those incidents included a support worker for an elderly person who arrived at Geelong hospital and refused to wear a mask in July 2020.

“In 2020/21, the higher rate of 2352 code greys was an increase from 1401 in the previous year,” Ms Jeffery said.

“Due to Covid restrictions, it wasn’t always possible for patients to access the usual support provided by family and loved ones while receiving hospital treatment.”

Ms Jeffery said at times, this contributed to some codes being called due to delirium, confusion or frustration.

“The recent improvements can be attributed to the return of visitors, along with various initiatives, including further targeted OVA training that enables staff to prevent and manage incidents, improved clinical models of care and environments for managing behaviours of concern, and the increased use of our planned code grey early de-escalation process,” she said.

Planned code greys are used in ­response to anticipated aggression as a preventive measure.

There were 21 code blacks, down from 23 in 2020-21.

A code black is called when there is an armed physical threat, which could involve someone wielding items such as a walking stick or chair.

Originally published as Hundreds of occupational violence and aggression incidents recorded at Barwon Health