Health New Zealand
Te Whatu Ora
3 April 2024
Tena koel@Iml
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00038000
Thank you for your email on 30 January 2024, asking Health New Zealand I Te Whatu Ora for the
following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1982
I'm not sure how she phrased her query but, basically, I wonder if you can
Act
please tell me
how many reported incidents there were in security departments in December and how that
compares with October and November 2023 and December 2022.
Can you please include any break downs you record in terms of the type of incident.
Response
Information
Hospitals can be challenging environments where patients are sometimes cognitively impaired,
impacted by some form of substance or alcohol abuse, or coping with the initial impact of an acute
injury. This can often affect their judgment and demeanour, resulting in unpredictable behaviour.
We cannot prevent all of these issues from occurring but
Official have robust processes in place to
manage them - minimising the risk of harm to staff and preventing further escalation. For this
reason, we have focussed our control measures on reducing the consequences by, for example,
The
providing staff with personal alarms and appropriate training. Our security teams are in close
proximity to our EDs and trained to help de-escalate incidents of aggression, if required.
Each month, around 94% to 98% of aggression
under
incidents are deemed to be without intent, i.e. the
aggressor is unaware of their actions, or the consequence of those actions, at the time of the
incident. It is also important to recognise that, of all of the thousands of patients that we assess
and treat each month, very few result in any violent interaction.
We have located the following information in response to your request, which we have broken
Released
down by physical assault and verbal abuse.
2022
2023
Oct
Nov
Dec
Oct
Nov
Dec
Reported Physical Assaults on
18
52
26
26
34
Staff in ED
34
Reported Verbal Abuse in ED
49
136
93
72
126
114
Overall Reported Aggression
67
188
119
98
160
Incidents in ED
148
We would like to offer context regarding the total number of emergency department presentations
over the same periods. This has been given further context with a rate per 10,000 presentations
This data follows.
2022
2023
Oct
Nov
Dec
Oct
Nov
Dec
ED Presentations
113,783
112,179
117,537
117,973
114,774
121,000
Physical Assaults Reported in
ED per 10000 ED
1.6
4.6
2.2
2.2
3.0
2.8
presentations
Verbal Abuse Reports in ED
4.3
12.1
7.9
6.1
11.0
9.4
per 10000 ED presentations
Overall Aggression Reports in
ED per 10000 ED
5.9
16.8
10.1
8.3
13.9
12.2
presentations
1982
Act
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at [email address].
Information
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
Official
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
The
Naku iti noa, na
under
Released
Sue Gordon
Head of Health, Safety, Wellbeing and Organisational Resilience
People and Communications
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Te Kiwanatanga o Aotearoa
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
New Zealand Government
