❓ Mr L'Estrange questions the absence of specific funding in the budget to address increasing assaults on nurses. The Minister responds by highlighting existing budget allocations for frontline worker security and outlining ongoing efforts to address the issue.
AnsweredQoN 370Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
HEALTH STAFF —
ASSAULTS — 2019–20 STATE BUDGET
370. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the highly concerning
increase in the number of assaults on nurses, with the number of assaults
increasing by more than 45 per cent between 2017 and 2018, with 1 754
hard-working nurses assaulted, and the minister's admission yesterday
that more needs to be done. Given the serious nature of this issue, why is
there not one mention in the 1 000 pages of the budget papers of how this is to
be addressed?
ASSAULTS — 2019–20 STATE BUDGET
370. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the highly concerning
increase in the number of assaults on nurses, with the number of assaults
increasing by more than 45 per cent between 2017 and 2018, with 1 754
hard-working nurses assaulted, and the minister's admission yesterday
that more needs to be done. Given the serious nature of this issue, why is
there not one mention in the 1 000 pages of the budget papers of how this is to
be addressed?
AnswerView source ↗
I
wonder if this is a budget question! That would be unusual. In the budget is
entrenched our $2.2 million commitment to improve security for frontline
workers in our emergency departments. I am not sure whether the member for
Churchlands was paying attention at the time, but on 1 January 2017—the
very first day, if you like, of what was considered the official campaign for
that election—the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Premier of Western
Australia, made a commitment that we would move to protect frontline workers in
our hospital system through a security package valued at about $2.2 million. It
is absolutely in the budget, and we will move as swiftly as possible to make
sure that we put those measures in place. The member is quite right. There has
been an increase in assaults on doctors and nurses working on the front line;
it tripled between 2012 and 2017. That is one reason we brought in our
policies, and we are working with health service providers to make sure that
they have the best application.
It continues to grow; we know this.
The member would have seen the disturbing footage of violence in our schools
over the last 24 hours. Violence against all public servants is a significant
problem for any government department providing services to the community. As I
said in this place yesterday, any assault on nurses is one too many, and we
will do what we can to provide extra resources to make sure that we put that in
place. As I said, there have already been discussions between director general
of Health and the Commissioner for Police to see what they need to do, as
system managers, to put better protocols in place to make that happen. I have
already spoken to most of the health unions to say that we will convene a roundtable
discussion with the chief executives of each of the health service providers to
collect their reflections and their feedback from nurses and doctors on the
front line, to see what more we have to do. We are absolutely resolute that we
will not tolerate assaults on doctors and nurses in our hospital system. We
have a range of measures in place in our emergency departments. As members will
be aware, the incident that attracted some attention over the weekend was
actually on a hospital ward, so clearly we have to look at this in more depth.
We have to have system responses to it, and we will do that, working in
conjunction with those doctors, nurses and other health staff working on the
front line.
wonder if this is a budget question! That would be unusual. In the budget is
entrenched our $2.2 million commitment to improve security for frontline
workers in our emergency departments. I am not sure whether the member for
Churchlands was paying attention at the time, but on 1 January 2017—the
very first day, if you like, of what was considered the official campaign for
that election—the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Premier of Western
Australia, made a commitment that we would move to protect frontline workers in
our hospital system through a security package valued at about $2.2 million. It
is absolutely in the budget, and we will move as swiftly as possible to make
sure that we put those measures in place. The member is quite right. There has
been an increase in assaults on doctors and nurses working on the front line;
it tripled between 2012 and 2017. That is one reason we brought in our
policies, and we are working with health service providers to make sure that
they have the best application.
It continues to grow; we know this.
The member would have seen the disturbing footage of violence in our schools
over the last 24 hours. Violence against all public servants is a significant
problem for any government department providing services to the community. As I
said in this place yesterday, any assault on nurses is one too many, and we
will do what we can to provide extra resources to make sure that we put that in
place. As I said, there have already been discussions between director general
of Health and the Commissioner for Police to see what they need to do, as
system managers, to put better protocols in place to make that happen. I have
already spoken to most of the health unions to say that we will convene a roundtable
discussion with the chief executives of each of the health service providers to
collect their reflections and their feedback from nurses and doctors on the
front line, to see what more we have to do. We are absolutely resolute that we
will not tolerate assaults on doctors and nurses in our hospital system. We
have a range of measures in place in our emergency departments. As members will
be aware, the incident that attracted some attention over the weekend was
actually on a hospital ward, so clearly we have to look at this in more depth.
We have to have system responses to it, and we will do that, working in
conjunction with those doctors, nurses and other health staff working on the
front line.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.