A Middlemore Hospital worker and the nurses union say verbal abuse against health staff is worsening under Covid-19 visitor restrictions.
Frontline healthcare workers are reporting increased aggression and abuse from members of the public at Middlemore Hospital, which has been attributed to Covid-19 visitor restrictions. Photo: Stephen Forbes / Stuff / LDR
And, they're concerned the true extent of the issue can't be determined, because not all cases are being recorded.
The worker, who asked not to be identified, said it was an issue staff faced daily.
"The hospital has a restricted visitor policy at the moment because of Covid-19 and a lot of people don't like it, so they get verbally abusive towards staff, especially in the children's ward," the worker said.
"But we're doing it to protect the safety of the patients in the hospital."
The staff member said a lot of the children in the ward had underlying health conditions and could be at serious risk if exposed to Covid-19.
Adults entering the hospital were only allowed a support person, while children were allowed a caregiver.
They said for many people, accompanying a loved one to hospital was a "stressful situation" and they often took out their frustrations on staff.
But the worker said while cases involving physical violence were recorded, incidents involving verbal aggression often were not.
The healthcare worker said they didn't want to be seen to criticise Counties Manukau Health as it was doing the best it could in a trying situation.
But they said the fact staffing numbers were already stretched meant abuse towards staff only added to the pressure they faced.
"It takes one or two staff members to deal with each incident which means they aren't looking after sick patients. It just creates more stress for the staff."
A report released by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) in 2019 looked at violence against workers in the health sector.
The paper found a link between violence and aggressive behaviour by patients and visitors to health facilities and their use of substances, including alcohol, methamphetamine and synthetic drugs.
In a statement, a spokeswoman from Counties Manukau Health said the safety of its workers was always a priority.
She said the number of reported incidents of violence in February was in keeping with the 70 cases recorded at the same time last year, up from 52 incidents in January.
"The DHB has a range of initiatives in place or underway to address violence, including increased security staffing, staff training programmes focusing on de-escalation of violence, and working regionally to develop best practice standards."
NZNO professional nursing advisor Suzanne Rolls had been leading a research project for the union looking at violence against nurses in the country's hospitals.
She said the DHB's data didn't accurately reflect the real scale of the problem and a lot of cases of abuse were going unreported.
"The DHBs and management really don't know the true extent of the violence and abuse faced by frontline healthcare workers," Rolls said.
She said visitor restrictions during the latest outbreak had no doubt played a part in the aggression and violence against hospital staff.
But Rolls said district health boards also needed to improve how they communicated their visitor policies to the general public.
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