At least four nurses and one security guard have been allegedly assaulted by a patient and his family members during a brawl at Queensland’s largest public hospital.

Police claim a female nurse was punched in the arm and kicked in the back of the head at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) around 3:00pm on Sunday.

It is alleged a two male nurses suffered cuts and abrasions during the melee while a security officer sustained a fractured elbow.

Police claim the window of a nursing unit manager’s office was also damaged before two people were detained by security staff.

A 16-year-old boy was charged with two counts of serious assault of a public officer performing a function, police said.

An 18-year-man involved is yet to be interviewed by investigating officers.

The head of the Queensland Nurses’ Union (QNU), Beth Mohle, said she was advised the brawl broke out in the RBWH’s mental health unit, and that up to 14 staff had been caught up in the violence.

Ms Mohle said she had been advised the injured workers had to be treated in the emergency department.

“I understand that the physical injuries were not that significant but the psychological injuries from an assault like that are significant,” she said.

“There is fundamental trust between patients and health workers that they’re going to be treated with respect and that’s been broken down by this happening.

“We believe this is an absolutely outrageous situation.”

Brawl comes shortly after ad campaign

Ms Mohle called for the perpetrators to face the “full force of the law”.

“The Government has just started an advertising campaign at the end of March to highlight that anybody who assaults a health worker or an ambulance officer can actually get up to 14 years in prison as a result of that.

“That’s a very important public awareness campaign but obviously more needs to be done to keep our health workers safe.

“In this situation it appears that it involved family members, who are members of the community, so that’s a very different situation to involving somebody who might have dementia or might not have control of their faculties.”

The chief executive of the Metro North Hospital and Health Service, Ken Whelan, said attacks on staff would not be tolerated.

‘We are doing everything we can to help support our staff after yet another senseless act of violence,” he said.

“Our frontline workers are the backbone of our community and sadly incidents like these are becoming all too common.

“We are working closely with Queensland Police Service to ensure these offenders are prosecuted,” Mr Whelan said.