00:00Elka King was on shift at the Launceston General Hospital when she was assaulted by a patient,
00:09leaving her with a major shoulder injury.
00:11I was in a physical altercation where I was grabbed and pushed up against a wall.
00:17As an emergency support officer, her job is to respond to violent and aggressive incidents
00:22and de-escalate situations before they get to that point.
00:26It wasn't the first time she was assaulted at work.
00:29It was just one of those unfortunate things that happens in our line of work.
00:32Data obtained under Right to Information laws show there were 771 Code Blacks
00:38at the Launceston General Hospital in the 2024-25 financial year.
00:43A Code Black triggers a security response to incidents involving violence or aggression.
00:48There were also 243 instances of the newly introduced Code Grey,
00:54which has a lower threshold and allows staff to intervene before an incident occurs.
00:58At the Royal Hobart Hospital in the same period,
01:01there were 1,231 Code Blacks and 255 Code Greys.
01:07The Health and Community Services Union says the numbers are alarming.
01:11To be seen at that regularly is beyond what anyone would think was reasonable
01:16and just shows the amount of issues we have in our health system.
01:19The union's calling for more medical, orderly and emergency support officer positions.
01:25Those support workers have a vital role, yet they're nearly always working short,
01:29which is leading to lots of overtime and, you know, an unmanageable workload for people.
01:36Tasmania's Health Minister, Bridget Archer, says the government prioritises the safety of hospital patients,
01:42staff and visitors.
01:43She says the government has increased the number of security guards in emergency departments
01:48and is implementing the recommendations of a recent review into safety and security at hospitals.
01:54A year and a half after the assault,
01:56Ms King is still on light duties at work because of her injury.
02:00She says there's no easy fix to prevent violence at Tasmania's public hospitals.
02:05The only way that I myself personally think that this could be alleviated
02:09was if we had more mental health facilities within the state
02:14and we had a better drug and alcohol system.
Comments