Violence against healthcare workers is nothing new, writes Dr Muiris Houston Medical Correspondent
The problem of violence against healthcare workers is not new. It was a relatively isolated phenomenon in the 1980s but with the rates of violence increasing, it became the subject of formal research and analysis in the mid-1990s.
A study of violence in general practice in the Republic found an assault rate of 21 per cent a year which ranged from verbal abuse to life threatening acts of violence.
As a medical student, I recall an incident when a drunken male patient sexually assaulted an accident and emergency doctor.
In the late 1990s I had direct experience of the problem when working in a deprived urban environment.
In one instance a group of men gathered in the waiting room with poorly-concealed baseball bats. This stemmed from my advice to a female patient, a victim of domestic abuse, that she should seek the protection of the law.
After a number of gardaí helpfully sat in the waiting room, "waiting to see the doctor", the would-be assailants left the premises.
But perhaps the most chilling experience occurred when a local drug dealer mistook me for another doctor. A newly arrived colleague, who shared a health board premises with me, began to prescribe methadone to drug addicts. Unfortunately, the drug baron mistook this as an attempt to damage his trade. He issued a direct death threat to both my receptionist and myself.
It is often these verbal threats, occurring far more frequently than actual violent acts, which cause the greatest damage to a worker's health. When they occur regularly, stress hormones are raised insidiously, which can in turn have long-term negative health effects.
Studies into the health of doctors and other front-line healthcare staff show that excessive job stress is one of the top three causes of ill health. When asked about the specific sources of stress, the fear of assault is rated as one of the main sources of work-related stress.
The Irish Patients' Association (IPA) yesterday called for violence in A&E departments to be treated in the same way as air rage. "There is no room for complacency in this area and there should be zero tolerance when it comes to violent incidents, of any type, in A&E. The IPA urges the introduction of a rigorous, penal response system that can deal with these situations rapidly," said Stephen McMahon of the IPA.