Emergencies - in "Emergency " !

Events this week highlight the very real danger doctors and nurses face daily when they treat patients in hospital emergency rooms.  The drama started earlier in the evening when a 39 year old man was arrested on a "break and enter "charge, to which "assaulting police "was added.  He was high on "Ice " - and he was given bail and served with a "court attendance order ".

He attained injuries during this arrest and the police dropped him off at a hospital emergency room - and drove away to attend to other duties.  This very violent man - who was a trained nurse from another hospital - then went berserk and took a woman doctor hostage, holding a pair of scissors to her throat.  A lone policeman responded to that call for help and with the assistance of a hospital security guard tried to restrain and disarm the offender.

One of the aspects of Ice use is the complete irrationality it delivers to the user and what many describe as "super human strength ".  In this fracas the offender somehow managed to get possession of the policeman's pistol - and shots were fired and one bullet passed through the officers leg - severing an artery - and lodged in the leg of the security guard standing behind him.   The offender was brought under control and the injured officer would have died had this wound not happened in a hospital emergency room - where immediate medical help was available.

This was not an isolated incident.  The drug "Ice " has added a new dimension to our medical facilities.  Paramedic ambulance crews take their life in their hands when they attend street emergencies and hospital emergency rooms become battle grounds when out of control patients go berserk.  Security is in the hands of unarmed security guards - who lack even handcuffs or a baton - and have no extra powers beyond that available to the ordinary citizen when it comes to their legal protection when doing their duty.

Our doctors and nurses deserve better than to be left defenceless when called upon to treat patients under the influence of dangerous drugs.  Their very work requires the presence of sharp implements such as scalpels and even a benign item such as scissors can become deadly if held to an attending persons throat.  In the incident where shots were fired, the emergency room contained other patients and clearly the entire incident was out of control and had the potential to develop into a siege.

The authorities seem loath to treat the need for security seriously.   Even swearing in security personnel as "special constables " would deliver a degree of legal protection but the defined need is to equip these men and women with the equipment they need to do their job.  There needs to be a degree of coordination between the police and hospital security where a clearly perceived danger exists.

Earlier in the evening, the offender had been charged with "assaulting  police " and he was known for similar offences.  The fact that he was high on Ice would have been good reason to deliver him to the emergency room in handcuffs - and to have him restrained in that manner until he was deemed safe for release.   Certainly, hospital security should have been forewarned that a potentially dangerous patient was about to be brought to them for treatment.

That also raises the question of whether offenders showing aggression because of Ice use should be granted bail, or kept under custody until the effect of the drug dissipates.  We have a desperate shortage of prison accommodation and police holding cells are usually overloaded, but it seems a gross inequality to simply dump dangerous offenders at the door of the nearest hospital emergency room - as the solution to police overcrowding problems.

This event was a death near miss !   That severed artery meant the officer would have bled out had treatment been not instantly available, and the fact that an Ice addict managed to overpower a fully trained police officer - assisted by a security guard - is a clear indication that emergency room security needs to go to a much higher level.

Now it awaits the politicians grasping the nettle - and treating this need seriously  !