‘It took five people to pull him off me’ – violence in hospitals ‘off the scale’ as staff are regularly attacked

Overcrowding and long waits are being blamed for rising incidents, and medics are quitting due to effect of ordeals

There were 5,582 assaults against medical and social care staff across HSE in the year to last October. Picture pos

Wayne O’Connor

January 29 2023 02:30 AM

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Assaults on frontline hospital workers have led to questions about the ability of the health service to adequately staff hospitals if medics are deterred from working in hospitals through violence.

It comes amid a worrying number of violent incidents and cases of physical and verbal attacks on frontline healthcare workers. On average 15 assaults and incidents were reported every day by staff at HSE hospitals and community healthcare facilities in the year to last October.