Private guards ‘a last resort’ at hospital after choking

A private guard was nearly choked to death by a mental health patient at the Cairns hospital, as it struggles to hire trained security officers to protect nurses and patients from violent assaults.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Leena Singh speaks with Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman at the Cairns Hospital earlier this year. Picture: Brendan Radke

A private guard was nearly choked to death by a mental health patient at the Cairns hospital, as it struggles to hire trained security officers to protect nurses and patients from violent assaults.

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Leena Singh conceded she could not yet meet whistleblower nurses’ pleas for a permanent around-the-clock hospital-trained security guard in the psychiatric intensive care ward, where violent prisoners from nearby Lotus Glen jail are being treated alongside teenage girls.

But Ms Singh said she was doing all she could to protect nurses, who report being punched in the head, spat on, kicked and threatened with murder and rape.

The Weekend Australian can reveal a private security guard was nearly choked to death last month by a mental health patient, and late last week another contracted guard had to be removed from the hospital after threatening a patient and a hospital staffer.

One of the nurses – who has asked not to be identified for their safety and for fear of losing their job – said a psychotic patient put the guard in a chokehold until his face was turning purple.

“It took three nurses to get this guy off him, to get him to let go; he would have died,” the nurse said.

Ms Singh said she learnt about the two incidents only this week and issued an urgent edict for private security guards – who often work as nightclub bouncers and are not required to have mental health or hospital training – to be used only “as a last resort” in the mental health unit.

The private security guards are not allowed to physically intervene to protect patients, nurses or other healthcare workers.

Nurses want jail officers to guard prisoners in the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, as they do in other wards, and a hospital guard permanently stationed there. Currently, the Mental Health Act means prisoners in public psychiatric wards are managed by hospitals, not corrective services.

But Ms Singh said the hospital was trying to recruit more security officers to be trained in the three-day Maybo workplace violence de-escalation course but it was difficult to find the right people.

“It’s a very tricky job because it’s not a stock standard security role … we need to make sure we select the right security personnel … so that they can actually talk patients down,” she told The Weekend Australian. “The priority is to avoid a physical restraint.”

She said some patients became more volatile when they saw “big burly security guards” so there was a complex balance between protecting staff and providing a therapeutic” and healing environment for vulnerable people.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles at parliament this week. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Asked whether the Mental Health Act should be changed to allow prison guards to protect nurses, Premier Steven Miles – who was visiting Cairns on Friday – did not answer. Mr Miles said the government had committed $32m for extra mental health ward security across the state.

“We don’t want any of our health staff to ever be threatened or to experience violence. One way we can help to ensure that is the case is by having those security guards on site,” Mr Miles said.

There are 10 beds in the Cairns PICU. Currently eight of the beds are being used by patients under forensic orders, meaning they have committed a crime but aren’t mentally well enough to face trial.

Ms Singh stressed the majority of the mental health patients were nonviolent and said it was difficult to strike the right balance between safety for staff and patients and ensuring the ward did not look like “Fort Knox”. She said she was confident a new $70m mental health unit – which should open late this year or early next year after significant delays – would ­reduce aggression and tension by increasing the natural light and outdoor space.