HUNTER NEW ENGLAND LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT

Media Statement
DATE: 8 January 2020

Please attribute to Ms Yvonne Patricks, General Manager, Peel Sector

The safety of staff, patients and visitors at Tamworth Hospital is paramount and the hospital
has strategies in place to reduce the risk of violence.

Our hospitals reflect the communities we live in and, as such, we do experience people
coming to our hospitals who have challenging and aggressive behaviours, often caused by
various medical conditions that can affect their behaviour.

Tamworth Hospital has the following measures in place to ensure the safest possible
environment for our staff, patients and visitors:
• providing Violence Prevention Management training for security and other staff who
are required to manage and respond to incidents
• personal duress alarms for staff
• post-incident reviews and de-briefing with staff including access to Employee
Assistance Programs

On 5 January 2020, Tamworth Hospital staff quickly intervened when three employees were
assaulted by a patient, sustaining minor injuries. These employees have received medical
treatment and support, and are recovering well.

Hunter New England Health and HealthShare NSW have been in ongoing discussions with
the Health Services Union regarding this matter, and will continue to work with them to
address their concerns.

The NSW Government appointed The Hon Peter Anderson to review security in NSW
hospitals. In February 2019, Mr Anderson released an Interim Report, and action on those
recommendations is underway. Mr Anderson has visited every Local Health District and has
met with hundreds of frontline staff, including those at Tamworth Hospital.

NSW Health is currently undertaking a trial at Gosford, Wyong and Blacktown hospitals, with
more security officers monitoring the emergency departments and CCTV screens.

NSW Health has also worked with NSW Police to improve the protocols for the handover of
violent patients.

Since 2010, there has been a 25 per cent increase in the security workforce across NSW
Health.

The NSW Government has invested $19 million to improve security in emergency
departments at public hospitals, upgrading CCTV systems, improving access controls
between public and staff areas and installing remote locking to public access doors. An
additional $5 million has been invested to upgrade duress alarms for staff in emergency
departments, which they are mandated to wear while on duty.

HUNTER NEW ENGLAND LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT

Email HNELHD-Communication@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au Web www.hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
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