Australia – 26th May, 2019: Doctors and nurses are being paid out millions of dollars in compensation after suffering vicious attacks while at work.
The Daily Telegraph revealed that more than 600 cases of worker compensation were lodged each year from 2013 to 2017.
The total pay-outs for the 735 claims accepted in 2014/15 totalled more than $11million dollars, indicating the heavy cost of hospital worker compensation.
As a result of the surge in attacks on health staff campaigners have called for the implementation of specific hospital security with extra powers to protect the hospital.
The security staff would be trained in specific health emergency situations as well as being put on 24-hour shift rotations to ensure security is on call all day.
Even with a recorded surge in hospital assaults Australia's College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Simon Judkins said attacks were still under-reported.
'We don't want our emergency departments to look like some sort of bunker, (but) we do need to make sure they're trained, visible and people know they are there,' Dr Judkins told The Daily Telegraph.
'(They) might be dealing with a 14 year-old autistic child one minute, then a 23-year-old intoxicated patient or someone on methamphetamine and then someone with a brain injury.'
Gerard Hayes, the national president of the Health Services Union said if action wasn't taken soon then the upwards trend of violence on health professionals would continue.
'The hospitals want police to hang around but police say we’ve bought them here and it’s now your responsibility,' he said.
Mr Hayes said as a result a dedicated security team is essential for staff safety.
One doctor who suffered one of the most horrific attacks in an Australian hospital was Dr Michael Wong.
Dr Wong was stabbed 14 times by a mental health patient at Footscray Hospital in early 2014 as he walked through the foyer.
The physician slammed security within hospital wards as 'unacceptable'
'It just highlighted for me once again that hospitals in Australia are not safe environments for anyone, these violent attacks can happen quite easily on any given day, at almost any hospital,' he told news.com.au.
He said he believes hospitals are not secure enough and that staff are constantly at risk of an unprovoked attack.
'The general public can quite easily walk into any foyer of a hospital without being stopped or checked,' he said.
The SafeWork Australia data has shown that hospital workers are at an increasing threat of attack of abuse while on the job.
In 2013/14 there were 610 claims approved, 735 for 2014/15 and 660 for 2016/17, the figures for 2017/18 are yet to be finalised and released.
SafeWork Australia data also shows the Health and Social Assistance sector accounts for the largest number of worker compensation claims ahead of construction and manufacturing.
Staff were forced to drag Dr Wong's blood soaked body into an operating theater, where doctors were able to save his life, as others kept the knife wielding man at bay with whatever they could get their hands on.
Eventually police arrived and were able to subdue and arrest the man.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7072295/Doctors-nurses-paid-MILLIONS-viciously-attacked-patients-working.html