We extend our support to the emergency medicine and healthcare communities affected by this terrible event. We are grateful for the efforts of staff at North West Regional Hospital, and across the Tasmanian hospital and healthcare system, for the care provided to their colleague.
As with any major incident, ACEM supports an investigation, to establish what has occurred, and understand what can be done to make emergency departments safer.
All healthcare workers have a right to be safe at work, and violence cannot be tolerated in emergency departments, hospital and healthcare environments.
It is pressing on all governments and administrators – all involved in the operations of healthcare and hospital systems — to consider what more can be done to ensure vulnerable emergency department environments are safe and free of violence, for all patients, carers and staff.
These are complex issues requiring complex, whole-of-healthcare-system and whole-of-society responses, involving more than just calls for greater police or security involvement.
As a College, we stand with colleagues in Tasmania, as we confront these distressing circumstances together.
Dr Clare Skinner
ACEM President
Background:
ACEM is the peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, responsible for training emergency physicians and advancement of professional standards. www.acem.org.au