‘Secure’ patient assaults nurses
A mental health patient smashed through a secure door, breaking a nurse’s thumb, as two other nurses were assaulted nearby.
Graphic photos posted to a nursing Facebook page show the nurse’s thumb covered in blood and missing its nail.
A nurse at Christchurch’s Hillmorton Hospital, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the violence erupted shortly after 9pm on Wednesday.
A patient in the hospital’s adult acute inpatient unit, Te Awakura, assaulted two nurses near a locked high-care area, the nurse said.
This agitated another patient, whom staff believed was secure in a locked room. However, this patient, managed to smash their way out of the room, causing ‘‘massive damage to the doors’’, breaking the glass windows and forcing their way out into the ward.
In the chaos, one nurse had her thumb broken and nail ripped out after it was caught in the door, the nurse said.
‘‘These are meant to be secure, highcare safe areas. Well, last night it proved how unsafe those doors are,’’ the nurse said.
Fearing for their safety, staff members fled to an office, locked themselves in, and called the police.
The nurse said the incident was serious, but assaults by patients against staff were relatively common at the hospital, as was staff going on ACC due to their injuries.
‘‘We as staff, we don’t feel protected any day we go to work at the moment,’’ the nurse said.
‘‘Nurses are becoming patients. It’s just not OK, it’s wrong.’’
A post to the ‘‘New Zealand, Please Hear Our Voice’’ Facebook page shared photos of the nurse’s thumb injuries and called on other nurses to tell their own stories in the wake of the incident.
‘‘We are sick to death of being hurt, or witnessing our teammates, dear friends, our partners and our family members being hurt while doing their underpaid and dangerously understaffed healthcare jobs.’’
A police spokeswoman confirmed emergency services were called to an incident involving staff and patients about 9.20pm on Wednesday.
One person was arrested and charged with wilful damage.