Concerns have been raised that assaults at Tasmania’s forensic mental health centre are being rated much lower than appropriate.
Right to Information documents show there have been 16 assaults, or attempted assaults, on staff and patients at the Wilfred Lopes Centre in the past five years.
The Health Department documents show there have been four reports of patients assaulting staff.
A patient assaulted a fellow patient twice, and there have been 10 reports of attempted assaults by patients on staff.
All the assaults and attempted assaults were considered low or medium risk.
The union representing nurses at the centre wants a meeting with management to find out why assaults were given that rating.
Neroli Ellis, from the Nursing and Midwifery Federation, is questioning the assessment rating, known as the SAC.
“We’re very aware that some of the assaults are at a much higher risk than low ratings of the SAC coding, so we do question how and who has rated those incidents,” she said.
“To see a major injury being rated a three just doesn’t make sense at all, so we’ll be taking that up with management to see how these ratings have been changed.
“It is clear to us that the SAC rating … is potentially much lower than it should have been rated at.”
In a statement, Health Minister Michael Ferguson said any threat or injury to staff was unacceptable.
“I am advised that the particular incidents of concern have been considered through the Tasmanian Health Service serious incident review processes,” Mr Ferguson said.
“Following a security review earlier this year, improved security arrangements were put in place and new security is well progressed.”