News

Health | November 29, 2017

Violence against our health care workers on the rise

The Nationals Member for Lowan and Shadow Minister for Country Health, Emma Kealy MP is concerned at recent figures which show the rate of violence against health care workers continues to grow in hospitals around Victoria.

Reports tabled in Parliament in October show the rate of reported occupational violence in Victoria has increased by 33% with 11,636 reported incidents in 2017 compared to 8752 in 2016.

Locally incidents at the Wimmera Health Care Group in Horsham rose from 126 to 229 incidents, a rise of 82%. West Wimmera Health Service reported a 59% increase while Western District Health Service and Rural Northwest Health reported increases of 34% and 29% respectively.

“It is unacceptable that our dedicated health care workers are experiencing this number of violent incidents at work”, Ms Kealy said.

“Daniel Andrews made an election promise to reduce violence against health care workers but is failing dismally, just another example of an Andrews Labor Government broken election promise.

“Victorians want leadership and solutions, but all we are seeing under Daniel Andrews is violent crime skyrocketing”, she said.