A nurse’s wrist is broken at Concord Hospital, and NSW answers with 129 guards for 27 hospitals

The 57-year-old and the 34-year-old were at work at Concord Hospital on Tuesday when, police allege, a patient turned on them. Both nurses needed treatment, and one was left with a broken wrist.

On Wednesday, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park announced the state would recruit 129 extra full-time security staff across 27 hospitals, to close what the government calls gaps in security ratios.

NSW Police said the patient, a 44-year-old woman, was restrained and sedated, and that officers were alerted about three hours after the incident. She remains in hospital and the matter is under investigation. No charge has been reported.

Mr Park said the injury was “not a minor injury”. He said there was no excuse for anyone to threaten staff, patients or visitors, and spoke of healthcare workers “being used as punching bags”.

What will 129 guards actually change?

Less than the headline number suggests, and Mr Park says so himself. He said the extra staff “will go some way, not eliminate” the problem.

The arithmetic explains why. Divided across 27 hospitals, 129 positions average just under five per hospital. A hospital’s security post has to be filled 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a full-time worker covers about 38 of the week’s 168 hours. On VNN’s estimate, five full-time staff are roughly what it takes to keep one extra guard on duty around the clock, once leave is counted.

For a big hospital, one more guard on each shift is still a real change. Bruce Rowling, a security guard at Royal North Shore Hospital, says a team of four officers can be covering more than 650 beds there, plus staff and visitors. He has had his thumb pulled out of its socket while restraining a patient, and backs the boost.

Which hospitals are worst?

The government has not said which 27 hospitals get the new staff. The hospitals that record the most violent incidents are large ones with busy emergency departments, including Westmead, Prince of Wales and Royal North Shore.

Mr Park linked the violence to changes in drug use, mainly methamphetamine, and to mental health presentations, describing hospitals as a mirror of the wider community. He said the government was working closely with police.

Will guards get more powers?

Possibly. Mr Park said he was considering giving hospital security staff additional powers but had not made a decision. “Additional powers comes with other challenges, but we are working through those,” he said.

The Health Services Union backed the extra staff, with secretary Gerard Hayes saying more officers would help stop incidents before they start.

Is this new?

No. A survey by the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association this year found 88 per cent of respondents had experienced violence at work in the previous 12 months. In April, a patient at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick allegedly injured several nurses, a security guard, a police officer and a member of the public before police used a Taser to subdue him. The nurses’ association said then that government and employers had to do more to keep nurses safe.

Who pays, and when?

The government has not released the cost of the 129 positions or a start date for recruitment. Both will decide how quickly the extra guards reach the wards.