CHS has since worked with the safety regulator to improve safety protocols for nurses and allied health workers caring for people in their homes.
WorkSafe ACT issued six improvement notices and one prohibition notice to Canberra Health Services in relation to home visit safety protocols, following four assaults on nurses or allied health workers carrying out home visits in March.
The assaults were serious enough to require medical assessment and occupational violence leave, said a spokesperson for CHS.
The incidents occurred during home visits as part of the Hospital in the Home and Belconnen Recovery Service programs run by CHS.
The staff involved have since returned to work and the safety notices have been lifted following actions taken by CHS to improve the situation, according to the ABC.
A WorkSafe investigation into the incidents found:
“The situations resulted in physical and psychological harm to the affected workers and had serious potential to result in the death of a person.”
CEO of CHS Dave Peffer did not play down the findings.
“That’s the finding of WorkSafe, and we don’t step away from that at all,” Mr Peffer told the ABC.
“We’ve taken that on board, and that’s why we’ve been working so closely with the regulator to improve our practices.
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“I acknowledge that these have been issues that have been raised throughout the years and, to be fair to the to many of our teams, they have adjusted their processes,” he said.
“Occupational violence is something we’ve been working on for a long time, for many years. It didn’t start when these incidents occurred, and certainly it won’t end tomorrow.
“Some of the situations where assaults have occurred it is almost impossible to foresee that that would have happened.”
Regional secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union Maddy Northam said members had been raising safety concerns for years.
“We’ve had members who have had the front door opened and the patient or a family member may be holding a machete or a knife or an axe or chain,” she told the ABC.
“There are firearms present, guns, bows and arrows.
“CPSU members at Canberra Health Services have been raising pretty serious safety concerns about home visits for more than two years now.”
WorkSafe found the risk assessments used for home visits were “ineffective” and the alarm systems “unsafe”, and required a series of changes in order to better protect staff.
A CHS spokesperson said some of the actions taken by the service included strengthening the risk assessment tool, mandatory training for staff before a home visit and ensuring staff have a duress device and that their manager always knew where they were.