Barwon Health has been issued with multiple WorkSafe Victoria improvement notices after repeated assaults and threats on nurses, midwives and other healthcare workers in and around entering or exiting the workplace, especially around the hospital car parks.
WorkSafe attended Barwon Health sites in Geelong after ANMF (Vic Branch) health and safety representatives (HSRs) and members reported concerns to their employer relating to an inadequate safe system of work when accessing the hospital’s car parks and also entering or leaving the workplace.
On behalf of members, ANMF raised these concerns with Barwon Health executive and also directly to WorkSafe. Given the lack of timely responses, communication or adequate controls, ANMF supported our HSRs to issue two provisional improvement notices (PINs) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) for failing to ensure so far as reasonably practicable that the workplace and the means of entering and leaving it are safe and without risks to health.
The PINs followed a number of recent incidents, including one where two nurses leaving an afternoon shift were threatened by a stranger in a multi-storey car park. The nurses requested security attend and were told they were unavailable as they were attending to another incident in the emergency department.
Barwon Health currently have just three security guards permanently rostered across day and night shifts. HSRs at Barwon Health requested immediate controls be implemented, including:
- an additional four security guards rostered per shift, resulting in a total of seven security staff per shift
- an ongoing security presence in the multi-storey car park and regular patrols to other car parks during high-risk shift-change times
- a return of a Barwon Health safety shuttle that took staff to and from their cars.
The WorkSafe improvement notices mean that Barwon Health will be subject to further enforcement action by WorkSafe Victoria should they fail to comply, and it can provide security presence, monitoring and response for employees accessing and using car parking facilities at University Hospital Geelong through, for example:
- additional CCTV systems
- use of emergency intercom systems
- an appropriately staffed and resourced security control room that is able to adequately respond to emergency intercom requests
- increased security officers to support employees
- and routine patrolling at shift changeover times.
This is a major win for ANMF HSRs and all members at Barwon Health who have refused to accept the ongoing risks to their safety when they have just been trying to arrive at or leave work. ANMF applauds the hard work and dedication of HSRs in saying enough is enough to Barwon Health and demanding real change. The advocacy of ANMF, HSRs and members has led to Barwon Health establishing a dedicated working group to work through members’ safety concerns. ANMF and HSRs have attended two of these important meetings and will continue to do so to advocate for members’ safety when transiting to and from work.
It also represents positive signs for the new health-specific workplace inspectors and the establishment of a dedicated healthcare division in WorkSafe, which ANMF campaigned for and which received ongoing funded in the May state budget. Health-industry specific inspectors, who have a health background themselves, or have undergone specific training to ensure that they understand the health environment, are leading to more comprehensive inspections, and to more healthcare employers being held accountable where they fail to implement actions that keep their workers and our members safe.
