1 March 2023
ANMF (SA Branch) officers and CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM visited Wallaroo Hospital and Health Services and Port Pirie Regional Health Service this week to launch our campaign for 24/7 restraint-trained security guards in all large regional hospitals.
The campaign, which will include an online community petition to state politicians, follows a spate of recent violent incidents in regional hospitals, including a Port Pirie nurse who required a total knee replacement after being punched and kicked to the floor by a patient.
This patient had absconded from the hospital three times previously and each time was brought back by SAPOL. Still Port Pirie’s hospital has no 24/7 security.
In another alarming incident, a man was last month tasered and arrested after smashing his way through glass doors at Wallaroo’s hospital just after midnight, using a CCTV camera he had wrenched from its fixings outside the hospital.
He was then able to gain access into the airlock and smash two panels of an internal door. SAPOL were called and it was just sheer luck that police were already en route to the hospital with a patient.
“The nurses themselves were terrified, but they were equally as scared for their patients,’’ Ms Dabars told ABC Radio.
“They had, in the facility, a 94-year-old gentleman and a toddler with their parents, who they tried to secure as best they could.
“But, of course, they cannot secure everyone in that place. They really do need support – a 24 hours a day, seven days a week security presence.
“Nurses and midwives should not be exposed to this. But the sad reality is they are on a weekly basis, if not daily, being exposed to both verbal and physical aggression and violence by other patients and visitors.’’
The ANMF (SA Branch) has successfully campaigned for 24/7 security guards in hospitals in Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln and Mount Gambier following a series of violent episodes – including a staggering 22 assaults against nurses at Whyalla Hospital in little over a month.
“We know that the level of illicit drug use within communities is frightening. A member only yesterday expressed fears that someone will be killed if the issue of hospital security continues to be ignored,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“Our nurses and midwives have every right to feel safe at work whilst they go about providing care to the community.
“We are calling on South Australia’s health bureaucrats and politicians to show - with action, not lip service - that they really do care about the safety of nurses and midwives.’’
The online petition calling for 24/7 restraint-trained security guards will be launched for ANMF (SA Branch) members and the public to sign and share.