Johannesburg - The Gauteng Department of Health says it continues to put measures in place to empower healthcare workers on how to respond to incidents of attacks on staff at health facilities.
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko revealed in a written reply to the DA’s Jack Bloom’s questions in the Gauteng Legislature that hospital staff have suffered 61 attacks by patients since January last year, mostly by those who are mentally ill.
According to Nkomo-Ralehoko, Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital had the most attacks, with 21 assaults on staff who were injured on various parts of their bodies; many nurses were punched in the face, and a security guard was hit in the groin.
The MEC said there were seven attacks on staff at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, including two nurses and a speech therapist, who were bitten on their fingers.
Nkomo-Ralehoko added that: ‘’Two smaller hospitals, Carletonville and Far East Rand (FAR), had nine attacks each; five of the staff at FAR were bitten by patients.’’
Bloom said that Nkomo-Ralehoko revealed that most attacks were by mental health care users; others are linked to anger at staff for various reasons, such as refusal to buy them items, patients trying to escape, or involvement in criminal activity.
‘’Angry relatives are another danger to hospital staff because, at Bertha Gxowa Hospital, a nurse was punched in the face at casualty by escorts of the patient demanding immediate attention for their injured friend. It is distressing that so many hospital workers are attacked while trying to assist patients,’’ Bloom said in a statement yesterday.
The DA Gauteng health spokesperson said that security needs to be beefed up with specialised facilities for mentally ill patients at hospitals where this is lacking to minimise the risk of violence against staff.
In response to Bloom’s statement, the Gauteng Department of Health said the department continues to take measures to equip staff to deal with incidents of attack and also reduce such incidents.
The measures include training staff in responding to aggression and violence in the affected institutions and other facilities; improving the profiling of patients so that attending staff members have access to patient history and are fully aware of other underlying conditions; providing continuous psychological and emotional support and counselling to staff; and advising staff to always follow Standard Operating Procedures when attending to patients.
‘’Staff encouraged to report all incidents to Occupation Health and Safety officers; implementation of existing Gauteng Department of Health and SAPS Memorandum of Understanding; continuous education of patients and their relatives on the treatment procedures to ensure greater co-operation; and installation of CCTV cameras at strategic locations for monitoring purposes,’’ the department said.
‘’Our goal in our facilities is to reduce, if not eliminate, such incidents. To reduce incidences of attacks inside our institutions, we must collaborate with healthcare professionals and other stakeholders, such as hospital boards, clinic committees, and patients themselves. The safety of our employees, including patients, remains a top priority.’’
The Star