Hospital staff routinely assaulted and abused, inquiry told

An inquiry into acute care services in New South Wales public hospitals has been told staff at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital emergency department are routinely assaulted and abused.

The hospital's emergency department director told the inquiry in Sydney that staff were verbally abused by patients as routine.

Doctor Sally McCarthy said every staff member had been physically assaulted at one time or another.

She said staff feared being assaulted at work.

Dr McCarthy told the inquiry that many incidents of assault are not reported because staff do not have time.

She also told the inquiry there has been an 80 per cent increase in mental health patients presenting to the emergency department since 2002.

She blames the increase on the lack of capacity in community mental health services and an increase in drug use.

Dr McCarthy said the emergency department is not a suitable environment for mental health patients.

Despite this, she said every day more than four of the departments 12 beds were occupied by mental health patients, in the last year.

She said there has also been an increase in the time mental health patients are spending in the department.

On top of these problems, she said the staff were facing rising demands, but there had been a reduction in doctors and the overtime they are allowed to work.

Source: ABC News