Hospital calls in police after drunk patient assaults doctor

Waikato Hospital staff worried about an increase in drunken violence in their wards are considering bolstering their security.

The move comes after a senior doctor in the emergency department was assaulted by a drunken patient while he was treating an elderly woman.

Hospital spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said the problem of violence towards staff was not isolated to Waikato. The hospital was meeting police next week to address the issue.

"We used to say the two places you'd feel safe are a church and a hospital, but it's not the case here in the hospital any more. We have had problems with intimidation and difficult patients not only in emergency but in other departments."

The doctor, who was punched and kicked by a patient on Saturday night, was considering pressing charges.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists spokesman Ian Powell said it was rare for a doctor to press charges after a patient attack. "It is probably an indication of the trauma suffered that he has taken that action."

The patient had earlier in the night put his arm through a plate glass window and was wandering around the emergency department dripping blood. He entered a cubicle where a 97-year-old woman was being treated.

"I stopped him and asked him to go back to his bed and he refused," the male doctor said. "I asked again and he started swearing at me, then he hit me four times in the face and kicked me."

Security guards and police subdued the man but could not take him away as his arm needed urgent medical attention.

Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan Adams said the attack was cowardly.

"These are our frontline clinical staff being attacked. It's simply unacceptable and the public and our staff need to know we're going to act on it.

"We're here to provide essential hospital services to the public and our efforts are diverted by these sorts of things," said Mrs Adams. "It's seriously ill people suffering because of these drunken fools and members of the public with no respect for the fact that this is a hospital. It's time we started standing up to these people and we'll be talking with police about how together we can sort this out."

Options included a review of visiting hours, security screening in the emergency department and a boosted police presence on the campus.

Professor of emergency medicine Michael Ardagh commended the doctor's decision to consider pressing charges. "It is important to follow through with these incidents. An attack in an emergency ward should not be seen as any different to an attack on the street."

He said emergency departments in New Zealand hospitals had become more restrictive in the past 10 years, and would have to consider stricter security if physical attacks became more common.

"Staff in emergency are trained in defusing difficult situations and also contributing to restraint. But if there is a trend of increasing violence there would have to be consideration of increased security.

"The extreme is having all doors locked down, as in some inner-city hospitals in the [United] States. But this would be a shame, and an inconvenience, considering the vast majority of patients are good-natured."

Waikato emergency department clinical director Dr Shameem Safih said drunken patients were a huge drain on resources. "It takes six to eight hours to deal with a seriously drunk patient. They require security, a nurse, a doctor and monitoring equipment."

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA