The Finocchiaro CLP Government has responded to calls for safer hospitals by pledging to provide 150 health care staff at Darwin and Palmerston Hospitals with personal duress alarms and $500,000 to fix the air conditioner at RDH, but has not said if it considered supplying pepper spray to the staff as well, amid ongoing violent incidents at the hospitals.
Health Minister Steve Edgington said the provision for alarms for all emergency department staff at Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital, as well as the $500,000 air conditioning upgrade at the RDH, will be in the upcoming 2026 budget, with the personal alarms going to staff “as soon as possible”.
Violence is never acceptable, but our government is still not listening to territorians.