Health Minister Roger Cook has released figures showing a staggering 38 per cent increase in assaults on nurses, with an alarming uptick in violence against health staff at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Government data showed assaults on nurses across the WA health system had jumped from 703 incidents in the second half of 2017 to 971 incidents during the same period in 2018. Most of the growth in assaults had come from Sir Charles Gairdner, where there were 265 more assaults on nurses for the given periods this year than last. It comes days after a 55-year-old nurse at Royal Perth Hospital was allegedly stabbed in the neck by a patient with a makeshift blade.
