Attacks on healthcare workers are mostly drink or drugs related, particularly on weekend nights when those attending hospital casualty departments may have taken large amounts of alcohol. That's the view of Dr Dermot Doherty, a Dublin-based doctor, who has been threatened and verbally and physically assaulted at work over seven years.
Incidents, he said, are as common in rural areas.
In one incident in "a country hospital" he and a nurse on duty in the casualty department had to take refuge in a locked examination room until gardai arrived after a fight erupted between two rival families.
"The latest incident I had was in the casualty department of Crumlin hospital when a patient came at me with a drip stand, but it was a very emotionally charged situation. The person was restrained by gardai who happened to be present."
Dr Doherty, a senior registrar in anaesthetics and intensive care at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, said there were other incidents when patients took a swipe at him or verbally assaulted him when they had to go through a painful procedure such as having a needle inserted for a drip.
Delays in casualty also resulted in patients taking out their anger on staff, he said.
Dr Doherty said security in hospitals was inadequate to deal with increased attacks against staff. A difficulty often faced by doctors was having to walk some distance from the doctors' residence to casualty at night when they were on call. This was unacceptable as there could be "all sorts of people hanging around".
There were also increasing attacks on staff property, particularly cars. "My car insurance has gone through the roof because of the amount of damage that has been done to my car outside hospitals. Its four tyres were slashed outside Beaumont Hospital."
While a report published yesterday showed the number of healthcare workers injured as a result of assault more than trebled between 1994 and 1999, Dr Doherty said he didn't feel the problem had got worse. He believes it has always been there, but perhaps wasn't always reported.
The report also said incidents were under-reported. Dr Doherty bears this out. He has never reported any of the incidents because he was not injured. "I see it as part of the job and just get on with it."