Ireland’s shame of attacks on nurses has been revealed with more than 33,000 such assaults recorded in the past seven years alone.
This figure includes more than 7,000 since the Covid pandemic began.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is now demanding an urgent review of hospital security.
They say there are very real concerns that health workers are not being adequately protected.
The HSE has confirmed that over the past seven years, 33,341 assaults were recorded on nurses and 733 assaults on doctors.
In 2020 and 2021, when health workers were hailed as the frontline heroes of the pandemic, 7,737 assaults took place on nursing staff.
The worst single year was 2019 when there was an average of 15 attacks per day on nursing staff, a total of 5,358.
Nurses have spoken of being punched, threatened, abused, and intimidated by patients, according to the report.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that any assault on a worker while doing their job is “unacceptable”.
“We need to know what measures are being put in place to protect a largely female workforce. The employer’s remit is to provide a safe workplace. This level of reported incidence is completely unacceptable,” she said.
