Bay of Plenty District Health Board acting chief executive Pete Chandler said panic alarms will be installed in standalone buildings after at least 115 assaults on hospital staff this year. Photo/file
Bay of Plenty District Health Board acting chief executive Pete Chandler said panic alarms will be installed in standalone buildings after at least 115 assaults on hospital staff this year. Photo/file
Panic alarms are to be installed at Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals after more than 100 assaults on staff were recorded this year.
Figures released to the Bay of Plenty Times under the Official Information Act show there were 115 assaults on Bay of Plenty District Health Board staff in the year to November 13 - about one assault every three days.
Of those assaults, eight were not by patients.
The assaults happened in Tauranga Hospital's emergency department, inpatient wards including the Intensive Care Unit and Health in Aging Ward, medical day stay, outpatients, radiology and Community Mental Health Services Tauranga plus Whakatane Hospital's inpatient wards.
They prompted 10 calls to the police, but acting chief executive Pete Chandler said no assaults were reported as serious.
The assaults resulted in 62 reports of minor injuries.
In 2015, there were 199 reported incidents of violence involving patients or staff. In 2014, there were 197 incidents.
Mr Chandler said the district health board was carrying out a systematic review of all staff assaults ''to ensure that we have robust measures in place to protect staff, specifically in high-risk areas".
''We are undertaking a number of actions generally to improve staff safety including reviewing CCTV locations, reviewing remote and lone worker safety, installing panic/duress alarms in standalone buildings and reviewing specific incidents to ensure that policies and protocols are in place and appropriate.''
Mr Chandler said there had not been any reports of people behaving badly in this first week of the holiday season.
"I do hope this is a signal that people coming into our ED will behave sensibly, recognising our staff are there to care for them and help them, and don't deserve to be treated badly."
The figures come after a video was released by St John ambulance, appealing for people to not act violently towards paramedics.
St John stated up to 60 officers were assaulted or abused a week while trying to help people in need.
No one from the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association or the New Zealand Nurses Organisation could be reached for comment.
St John ambulance operations manager Jeremy Gooders says the level of violence shown to his team in the Western Bay is unacceptable, after 227 reports of abuse in the past nine months. Photo/file
Bay ambulance officers plea for safety while saving lives
At least 227 local St John ambulance officers have been assaulted or abused in the past nine months, prompting a plea from the emergency service for people to refrain from violence over the festive season.
St John Central East District operations manager Jeremy Gooders said the abuse was ''an absolute issue'' for the Western Bay of Plenty.
''It happens on a daily basis.
''Worryingly we are seeing an increase in physical assaults and aggression towards staff,'' he said.
The East District includes the Western Bay plus the Rotorua/Taupo area and the East Coast.
''For our staff to be verbally or physically abused when they are trying to provide their best care for someone is totally unacceptable. This sort of behaviour also places the patient at risk.''
Of the incidents, 162 were verbal and 65 physical.
''Our ambulance officers respond 24/7 to calls for help. The are very dedicated, and provide great care to patients and save lives,'' Mr Gooders said.
''Our staff cannot focus on providing emergency care, and at times life-saving interventions, when they are being threatened, punched, kicked or spat at.
''Our staff just want to go and do our job, and get home safely.''
Mr Gooders said about half the assaults involved alcohol and recreational drug abuse and tended to occur on the weekend.
