Staff at Tasmanian hospitals record frequent physical and verbal abuse

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Staff at Tasmania's public hospitals say they're frequently subjected to physical and verbal abuse in the emergency department, resulting in physical and psychological injuries. Data obtained through right to information laws shows how often these incidents are occurring.

Transcript

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.

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