8 September 2021
The ABC reports that 91 Code Blacks have been called at Port Lincoln Hospital since 2016, with incidences tripling in the past two years.
As of late last month, there had been 27 Code Black incidents reported at Port Lincoln for 2021, just three shy of the entirety of last year.
“We are very, very concerned that, system-wide, in both country and metropolitan areas, these issues of violence and aggression are just escalating,’’ ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM told ABC Eyre Peninsula breakfast presenter Emma Lee Pedler.
“And it also appears to us that the intensity is also escalating.
“We do hear of far too many events where people are being kicked, spat at, punched, bitten. We've even had reports of people having faeces thrown at them.
“And of course, at Port Lincoln Hospital, there was the brutal bashing of a nurse some time ago. It was absolutely devastating that that happened in the first place. But the reality is that these issues are occurring, and they do occur. And it's both in metropolitan and country areas,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“We have had some good success at Whyalla and Port Augusta where the hospitals there saw what was happening, actually listened to their staff and have put in place security guards in the ED who also do regular visits into the ward areas.
“We have heard from those members in those sites who are very, very pleased with this change. They do feel safer, they do feel more secure and the trial that they’re running is going extremely well.
“Contrast that to Port Lincoln Hospital, that despite having a report months and months ago, arising from that brutal bashing, which said that they can and should put in security guards, they still do not have a security guard at that hospital and we are absolutely perplexed as to why.’’
In August 2019, a Port Lincoln registered nurse was attacked by a teenage boxer and suffered severe bruising, neck sprain and whiplash, facial scarring, intermittent pain, headaches, concussion, nausea from pinched nerves and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"If one punch landed slightly in a different spot on my skull, I would not be alive today, I'm certain of that," the nurse said in her victim impact statement.
"To hit me once would've been enough of a shock and difficult to deal with.
"To be hit over and over repeatedly, very hard, very fast with no chance of defending yourself, to be hit again and again until you are cowering in the corner, pressed against a cupboard and still getting hit, no-one can comprehend.
"My colleagues have all been affected by this, some too scared to go to work,’’ the nurse said.
Yet, despite her horrific ordeal, the report recommending security guards at Port Lincoln Hospital was later changed.
“We do know that that report was later reviewed and the requirement for security guards was no longer apparent on it,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“I’m not sure why that was the case, I can’t comment on why that report changed, but all I can say is in our view the circumstances have not changed adequately to alleviate that need (for guards) and sadly this is something we are hearing across the board in country hospitals.
“The sad reality is that we do need security guards in these locations and they should have them. Occupational Health Safety and Welfare, there are laws about that, there is an absolute law that the employer is required to provide its employees with a safe working environment.
“They should be safe but currently they’re not.
“We have raised these issues with the minister. We've raised them with chief executive of SA Health, we raise them with all of the local health networks.
“We have done all that we can to provide solutions. We have lobbied and achieved a policy that is great. But the policy hasn't been put into practice. And that is what they desperately need to do.’’
The ABC today reported that SA Health has responded to security concerns at Port Lincoln Hospital raised by the ANMF (SA Branch).
SA Health says the Eyre and Far North Local Health Network has undertaken a range of measures, include upgrading security cameras across the hospital and upskilling staff in de-escalation and managing aggressive behaviour.
However, Ms Dabars said security cameras only provide a record of a violent event AFTER it has happened and that preventative measures, namely permanent 24/7 on-site security guards, were far more effective in combatting dangerous behaviour.