Calls for better protection as violence against health workers rises

New data has revealed that assaults on health workers are increasing rapidly, highlighting a complicated problem for GPs on the frontline, says the RACGP.
 
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report explored work-related injuries among healthcare workers that were serious enough to require hospitalisation between 2015–16 and 2024–25.
 
During that time there were 7416 injury hospitalisations among healthcare workers.
 
Assaults took a sharp increase over the study period from 49 in 2015–16 (4.3 per 100,000 care workers) to 126 assault-related hospitalisations (8.1 per 100,000) in 2024–25.
 
In 2024–25, falls accounted for around one third of healthcare workers’ injuries resulting in hospitalisation, followed by 15% caused by assaults, and 13% from contact with objects, such as knives, tools or machines.
 
Assaults also shifted from being the fourth leading cause of injury hospitalisation among healthcare workers to the second.
 
In comparison, assault is the seventh highest cause of injury hospitalisation for the general Australian population while falls remain the top cause in both health workers and the general population.
 
RACGP Queensland Chair Dr Cath Hester said the results are a concern and highlight a difficult issue.
 
‘It’s a significant problem for healthcare workers, and it’s one that will require a really nuanced approach, because there are lots of different factors that contribute towards this,’ she told newsGP.
 
Amongst some of the contributing factors are hospital overcrowding, high demand for services, complex patients, and ageing facilities, Dr Hester explains.
 
‘In our area we know that where there are high reports of occupational violence towards healthcare workers, there are very difficult clinical environments, so environments where you have ageing patients, or patients have cognitive problems, and of course an overlay of mental health as well,’ she said.
 
‘It’s really hard, especially in a public hospital system – this is where these patients and complicated patients need to be cared for but unfortunately, sometimes their medical conditions and their situations mean that there’s a risk of violence towards healthcare workers.
 
‘There’ll always be a degree of risk in humans caring for other humans, but we have to find ways to address this from a workplace health and safety perspective, from a clinical governance perspective, and just looking after our fellow healthcare workers.’
 
While there is an ‘intrinsic risk in caring for complex patients, that doesn’t mean that we can’t do things to reduce that risk and to help manage it’, Dr Hester said.
 
‘One way is attending to the built environment that healthcare workers are operating in, and making sure that equipment is there to help with these patients, that they have space, that there are low-stimulus rooms available, and that there are correct duress facilities and procedures around ensuring that workers are protected.
 
‘It may include things like having specialised security or safety officers available.
 
‘We also need to ensure that healthcare workers, not just clinicians, but also admin workers, ward staff and everybody who’s working in these environments have access to training in occupational violence and especially in de-escalation and communication strategies, and that’s super important.’
 
Dr Hester said it is also important to consider how violence against GPs is reported – an area she suspects is underreported.
 
‘We need to look at ways to help general practices, which are small businesses, to keep their GPs and healthcare workers safe as well,’ she said.
 
‘GPs are often working with very complicated and complex cohorts of patients and are at risk of occupational violence because they don’t have the same structures and infrastructure in place as we do in the public hospitals.
 
‘Having more accurate data around what is actually happening to healthcare workers, and the risks that they are putting themselves under to care for their patients day in and day out, will hopefully be the impetus to change and improve things to make it safer.’
 
While ‘falls on same level from tripping’ sat at the top of the table and assaults were up in 2024–25, the rate of hospitalised injuries from ‘overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements’ almost halved.
 
The types of injuries healthcare workers are most likely to experience are fractures (28%), followed by soft-tissue injuries (15%) and open wounds (10%).
 
Over the 10-year study period, 81% of injury hospitalisations were no longer than one day (55% of healthcare workers were discharged from hospital on the same day of admission) and 3.4% were longer than one week.
 
About 1% of injury hospitalisations (70 cases) required time in an intensive care unit and 24 required continuous ventilatory support.
 
Also published by the AIHW was a report on Injuries occurring among admitted patients, providing insights into hospital-onset injuries.
 
It revealed one in every 182 hospital separations involved a hospital-onset injury between 2015–16 and 2024–25. These were more frequent in older age groups and among men.
 
Half of these hospital-onset injuries were caused by falls and most often resulted in open wounds or superficial injuries, and injuries were more common during longer stays.
 
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GP safety injury patient violence workplace safety