Box Hill Hospital forced to pay traumatised nurse almost $500k after she was beaten by patient

Box Hill Hospital has been forced to pay a distressed nurse almost half a million dollars after she was locked in a room with a notoriously violent patient, who repeatedly beat her while hidden from view.

A major hospital has been forced to pay a traumatised nurse almost half a million dollars after she was locked inside a room with a notoriously violent patient, who repeatedly beat her while hidden from view.

Elly, not her real name, was working in Box Hill Hospital’s psychiatric unit when the patient began hitting and punching her and another young patient in 2021.

She was awarded $495,000 in damages from Eastern Health because high windows blocking her colleagues’ view into the room from the outside meant they could not see the man beating her, pinning the 18-year-old female patient against the wall and punching the young woman.

The veteran nurse claimed the man’s assault was prolonged because the hospital had not fixed “well known” faulty swipe card access out of the secure room, resulting in her, and other nurses who had arrived to help, being trapped.

Box Hill Hospital has been forced to pay a traumatised nurse almost half a million dollars after she was attacked by a patient. Picture: Ian Currie

In the scramble to escape the room, someone stood on Elly after she had fallen over before a doctor unlocked the room from the outside.

The man, who was deemed by hospital staff to be high risk because of his history of assaulting workers, became aggressive after Elly told him a doctor would assess him later in the day.

The nurse, who had worked at Box Hill’s psychiatric unit for more than 20 years before the attack, said she now feared she and other nurses were still at risk of violent assaults.

“I’m traumatised as a result of the attack and it still feels like it happened yesterday,” she said.

“I’ve lost faith in the system that failed to protect me and my colleagues, despite knowing the workplace was a risk of being unsafe.

“Management should have listened to staff, the frontline workers who use the facilities day to day, and get their input, but they didn’t.”

An Eastern Health spokeswoman said they had now made changes.

The man became aggressive after Elly told him a doctor would assess him later in the day. Picture: David Crosling

Elly’s lawyer, Shalyn Mathew, of Arnold Thomas and Becker, said frontline workers, who were at higher risk of being assaulted, had the right to be protected as much as possible

WorkSafe Figures released to the Herald Sun showed 2931 nurses received WorkCover compensation in the last five years, with one in 10 of those due to physical violence.

It comes after a Herald Sun investigation last year found Melbourne’s hospital workers had faced an onslaught of abuse – equivalent to more than one attack every hour.

While unable to comment on Elly’s individual case, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said hospitals needed to do more to protect workers.

She told the Herald Sun it was “not uncommon” for investigations to find management were repeatedly warned before an attack about “failures” they could have fixed. that could have been addressed”.

“Incidents where there are multiple apparent failures by an employer … occur frequently,” she said.

An Eastern Health spokeswoman said they were “dedicated to a process of ongoing improvement”.

“Violence towards healthcare workers is not tolerated.”

A WorkSafe spokeswoman said: “Occupational violence and aggression is a real risk faced every day by Victoria’s healthcare workers, but that doesn’t mean it should be accepted as ‘just part of the job”.

Originally published as Box Hill Hospital forced to pay traumatised nurse almost $500k after she was beaten by patient