Emergency department doctors are calling for trained security guards to be posted at every ED 24/7.
Violence against staff has become an issue of growing concern, with reports that staff at North Shore Hospital have been pressing the panic button thousands of times.
The number of assaults against Te Whatu Ora staff has risen dramatically, from 1179 in 2021 to 3459 in 2022. In the first three months of this year, 1887 assaults were reported.
Now, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) wants political parties to commit to change - with more security on a list of possible solutions.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, the group's New Zealand chair Dr Kate Allan said that while an ED is chaotic “at the best of times”, things are getting dangerous.
“As it’s become more crowded, as we’ve had more stress on our communities, and people are coming to us in really vulnerable states,” she said.
“There are lots of reasons people can become agitated, and they are experiencing excessively long waits.
“With all of that, it all bubbles up, and you get to a point that the chaos is just overwhelming, and you get violence and aggression.”
She said the level of violence workers are experiencing is making their jobs “really, really difficult”.
Allan loved helping people but said: “I don’t want to be in an environment where I’m scared of my patients."
“Some of it is part of our job, so sometimes the violence and aggression is part of a disease process, and we acknowledge and accept that, and we know how to deal with that.
“But when we feel vulnerable at work because of unanticipated violence and aggression, we need measures to help us deal with that.”
The ACEM is desperate to see some of those measures and has made a few suggestions to those in charge.
Allan said multiple issues are feeding into each other and believes the suggestions may help to solve the problems.
This includes staffing security in emergency departments 24/7, delivering appropriate staffing and mental health beds that were pledged in the 2019 budget, delivering 150 staffed high-level aged care beds, “identified solutions” that provide and retain the workforce with support structures in place, and a plan to collect ethnicity data to ensure everyone gets equitable care.
“We want more people coming into emergency medicine. It’s really rewarding at the core, but it’s really challenging at the moment,” Allan said.
“Something needs to change.”
Te Whatu Ora responds
In a statement, Te Whatu Ora’s chief people officer Andrew Slater said the organisation is currently reviewing their security requirements “particularly in relation to our emergency departments.”
“Our aim is to provide staff, patients and visitors with specialist healthcare security resources to keep people safe from violence and aggression, including 24/7 where required,” he said.
“We acknowledge there has been an increase in reported incidents in the last 12 months. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that we have better reporting systems and staff are encouraged to report all incidents of verbal or physical aggression.”
He said that early reporting of incidents would help address pressures before they become more serious.
“These reports also help us build a more reliable picture over time of where we are seeing more reports of threats or violence towards staff – which means we can respond accordingly as one system.”
“Nationally, we’ve identified that workplace violence is a critical risk, and there are a number of actions underway to respond to violence and aggression in the workplace.”
Slater also said Te Whatu Ora has identified the design of their facilities can also help keep staff safe.
“This can include safe and secure spaces for staff or security measures like restricted swipe card access areas and security alarms.”
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