Violence against hospital staff continues to spike.
Violence in Victorian hospitals is on the rise with 10,099 occupational violence incidents reported across 13 metropolitan hospital services in the past financial year – an average of 27 per day, and 506 more than the previous year.
According to a report in the Herald Sun this morning, Royal Melbourne emergency department staff were subjected to 2412 attacks, the worst in the city – including 61 which led to staff injury or illness – with Monash Health (1645) and Mercy for Women and Werribee (1030) in second and third.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick called on hospital executives to “take urgent action”.
“Many [hospitals] still have a reactive focus, with change only occurring after an incident has occurred,” she was quoted as saying. “Until all systems and controls are in place to prevent violence and aggression, it will keep happening.”
Earlier this month the Victorian Auditor General’s Office found that the state health department and three hospital services – Austin Health, Barwon Health and Central Gippsland Health — had failed their workers and “could not show they met key legal requirements for managing the issues of fatigue and occupational violence”.
Occupation violence issues included their failure to acknowledge underlying issues when reporting incidents to management and the board, “such as a staff shortage leading to long waiting times and a patient becoming aggressive”.
“This limits the audited hospitals’ ability to proactively manage these risks,” the VAGO report found.
“Staff we spoke to during the audit told us that . . . there is a general acceptance and tolerance of low-level psychological stressors in their workplace, such as occupational violence and aggression, because staff feel it is part of their job.”
Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Victorian chair Dr Belinda Hibble said emergency departments had seen a spike “in recent years” as patients’ and families’ “frustrations boil over”.
“The current level remains unacceptable,” she told media.
“Violence and aggression within our workplace increases where people wait long periods. There would not be one emergency department worker who has not been subjected to violence or aggression.
“We’re very concerned about the cumulative effects. Our workers … deserve to feel safe.”
Occupational violence incidents:
- Royal Melbourne – 2412
- Monash Health – 1645
- Mercy for Women & Werribee – 1030
- Austin Health – 939
- Eastern Health – 923
- Peninsula Health – 815
- Northern Health – 643
- St Vincent’s Hospital – 444
- Alfred Health – 443
- Western Health – 405
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – 160
- Royal Children’s Hospital – 133
- Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital – 81
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