Westmead Hospital’s emergency department will soon have a dedicated unit for aggressive and extremely agitated patients to keep staff and other patients safe as NSW hospitals grapple with escalating levels of violence.
The Minns government announced construction will begin in August on the secure six-bed unit within Westmead’s ED, which recorded a 31 per cent increase in patients with mental health and behavioural issues over the past five years.
“Our nurses and clinicians who work at Westmead ED have told us they are seeing more and more patients who become aggressive or violent, and it’s making their job harder,” Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said.
Jackson said the loud, busy ED environment can cause some patients to behave in ways that put staff and other patients at risk.
The Acute Behavioural Disturbance Unit will be designed to provide a secure, therapeutic environment for patients in acute distress, including those experiencing drug-induced psychosis, who have been diverted from the ED waiting room.
In June 2024, a security guard was allegedly stabbed, and several nurses were injured by a man armed with a knife in Westmead’s ED.
NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association’s Cumberland Hospital Branch secretary Fran Cavallaro said the incident highlighted the urgent need for specialised, fit-for-purpose environments in the state’s hospitals.
She said union members had been working with the state government for the past 18 months to make the unit a reality. Patients were also involved in its design.
Health Minister Ryan Park said: “Care will be delivered by experts and emergency clinicians trained in de-escalation, mental health and drug health.”
The government also expected the unit to help reduce ED wait times and minimise disruption to other patients when it opens in early 2027.
Similar strategies at Nepean and Prince of Wales hospitals have led to a drop in the need for sedation and restraint, reduced the length of stay and the time it took for patients to be seen in EDs, the statement read.
Michael Whaites, general secretary of NSWNMA, said many other NSW hospitals had the same urgent need for these units to keep patients and staff safe.
Statistics obtained under freedom of information requests showed a 30 per cent increase in aggression incidents in the South Western Sydney, Nepean Blue Mountains, and Murrumbidgee local health districts.
“We know physical assault and verbal abuse [are] on the rise across the state,” Whaites said.
The union’s recent survey found 88 per cent of nurses, midwives and carers had experienced violence in the previous year, with public sector members most commonly exposed.
In February, mental health patient Setefano Mooniai Leaaetoa was charged with murder and attempted murder after allegedly stabbing one person to death and severely injuring two others. He had escaped his escorts during a transfer to Westmead ED more than a week earlier.
Park said the unit was part of a broader range of measures, including safer assessment units, and recruiting more than 160 extra security personnel since taking office in March 2023.
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