BY ALICE PEART
Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery has renewed her calls for additional security guards to be employed across NSW hospitals following an attack on a staff member by a patient early yesterday morning at the Mater Hospital.
A 22-year old male patient attempted to stab a security guard with a pair of scissors who suffered cuts and scratches to the face.
Ms Hornery has called for an additional 250 security guards across NSW, with some of those allocated to the John Hunter and Mater hospitals, better training for those staff and for security guards to be given authority to detain violent patients.
"It is about making sure we have adequate security guards on deck to protect one another and to protect the staff and patients", she told 2NURFM today.
The issue of security in NSW hospitals has been reviewed multiple times in recent years.
The latest findings however make no explicit reference to increasing the number of security guards nor the detaining of patients. The review by former police and health minister Peter Anderson made 48 recommendations, particularly highlighting the importance of changing the culture around security services including clothing, punitive attitudes and refraining from acting as a "nightclub bouncer".
Contrary to the call for the detaining of violent patients, NSW Health has advocated for the minimising of patient seclusion and restraint. Changes which have been implemented successfully in the Creating Positive Cultures of Care program at the John Hunter NEXUS facility.
The attack at the Mater follows others on local emergency service workers in the past fortnight.
Ms Hornery says the priority should be keeping patients and staff safe, "Our staff go to work everyday and they deserve to be kept safe and in a position where they are not threatened by violence".
