Copyright theage
At least 23,977 violent incidents occurred in Victorian public health services last financial year, according to an analysis by this masthead of more than 60 annual reports tabled in state parliament last week. This equates to about 65 incidents every day, and is a 20 per cent spike compared to the 19,859 cases reported in 2023-24. “Nurses, midwives and carers are kicked, bitten, hit with an object, punched and spat on,” said Maddy Harradence, Victorian secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. “Some nurses and midwives never return to work. It ruins lives.”
