Figures released by the HSE show that there have been a shocking 5,500 assaults on healthcare workers in the past 15 months alone.
That’s an average of 12 assaults each day.
In total healthcare workers were subjected to 5,672 cases of verbal, physical, or sexual assault in the workplace.
And that’s on top of dealing with the challenges which came with the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the Irish Examiner reports, a breakdown of the data shows that 4,763 cases occurred in 2021, with a further 909 up to March 31st of this year.
Of those, nurses have borne the brunt, with 2,876 reported assaults in 2021 and 540 incidents this year.
There have also been 164 assaults on health support staff, 38 on ambulance or transport workers, 46 on catering and housekeeping, and 81 on medical practitioners, while “other staff” in the health service faced 1,609 assaults last year and 282 in the first three months of 2022.
