Hospital safety plan ‘fails to halt attacks on staff’

THE gardaí’s Hospital Watch Scheme has not curbed the level of assaults on hospital staff, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).

Gardaí say the scheme has reduced the number of attacks on nurses but Liam Doran, general secretary of the INO, insisted yesterday the level of assaults was still ‘appalling’.

“The Hospital Watch Scheme has a role to play in adjusting social behaviour but it does not seem to be diminishing incidents of alcohol-fuelled assaults occurring particularly at weekends,” he said.