By Julia Medew and Rania Spooner
Hospitals are putting violent patients into comas as a last resort to protect staff who are being sprayed with blood, held hostage, and bashed on the job, a leading doctor says.
Simon Judkins, a spokesman for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said more funding was needed to protect health workers from a growing number of dangerous patients, including some who are lashing out due to long waits for care.
Simon Judkins, spokesman for the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine.Credit: Jason South
Dr Judkins, an emergency physician who is also an advisor to the Victorian government, said some people with ice-induced psychosis were now being put into comas, and placed on ventilators in intensive care units for 24 hours to protect themselves and staff who do not have enough resources to restrain them.
"We've put them into comas just to control them," he said. "It's a last resort but it happens pretty frequently."
A man drove his 4WD through the doors of Sunshine Hospital in October.Credit: ABC News
Dr Judkins said all emergency departments needed secure rooms for such patients but didn't have them. While the Victorian Government's $20 million Health Service Violence Prevention Fund for hospitals to upgrade security over four years was welcome, he said it wasn't meeting demand to make staff feel safe.
"Many hospitals are not set up to look after their staff... It's getting worse and worse and people are just absorbing it," he said.
His plea comes after a nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital was allegedly held at knife point by a 60-year-old male patient during what police have described as a "siege" on Monday night.
The incident unfolded shortly after 6.30pm in a surgical ward where the man allegedly threatened two female workers. Police were called and the man was later charged with false imprisonment, common law assault, threats to inflict serious injury, and aggravated assault.
Dr Judkins said staff at Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne's west had been subjected to a spate of attacks over the last year. One patient slit their wrists and attacked staff, spraying blood on them and punching one nurse in the face repeatedly, he said. Another patient who was angry about waiting for care drove their four-wheel-drive through the glass doors of the emergency department in October.
"The staff are traumatised… They cannot see any changes in security arrangements at the hospital," he said.
Sunshine's emergency department after a 4WD was driven through the doorCredit: ABC News
A spokesman for Western Health said it had received $86,410 from the government's fund, and that it was increasing duress alarms and CCTV surveillance.
"The safety of staff, patients and visitors at each of our sites is a top priority," he said.
In a separate incident at the RMH a year ago, a nurse was punched in the face in a trauma ward when a violent patient cornered two staff members. One healthcare worker said staff in the ward were shaken after their colleagues were "badly assaulted" in the March 2016 attack and had been waiting for duress alarms.
Melbourne Health chief executive Adam Horsburgh said his organisation - which includes RMH and NorthWestern Mental Health - had received $447,367 from the government's fund, including $190,000 in January to install CCTV cameras and duress buttons in 12 wards. These are expected to be installed within weeks.
He said drug detector dogs and personal recording devices for security staff had been introduced to mental health facilities and had led to a 14 per cent drop in assaults. Mr Horsburgh said while fewer than 1 per cent of patients cause physical and mental harm - or use verbal aggression, "this is just not acceptable."
In October, Fairfax Media revealed that almost every hour, a health worker is spat at, punched, abused or threatened while trying to care for patients in Victorian hospitals.
An analysis of health services' annual reports showed there were 8627 reports of occupational violence in Victoria's public hospitals in the year to July, and of those 1166 resulted in staff injury or illness.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jill Hennessy would not comment on drug affected patients being restrained in intensive care units. Nor would she say how many emergency departments have secure areas for violent patients. However, she said the government was considering proposals for safe assessment rooms in emergency departments to protect workers.
"We have zero tolerance for violence, abuse and aggression against our front-line health workers," Ms Hennessy said in a statement.
"Each hospital and community has its own set of challenges, and what is important is that we are working with health services and supporting them to develop tailored solutions – whether that is duress alarms for staff, trialling body cameras for paramedics, or stab-resistant vests for security workers."