Hospital staff are preparing to hit the NSW government with a state-wide strike, demanding action to make their workplaces safer after an increase in assaults by patients. Health Service Union NSW president Gerard Hayes will move a motion at the union’s state conference on Tuesday for the four-hour strike. Healthcare workers are planning a strike over violent incidents at NSW hospitals. “We’ve all had a gutful of people being injured in hospitals,” Mr Hayes said, citing the case of a man who was shot by police after brandishing a knife outside Nepean Hospital’s emergency room last year. “We’ve tried to highlight this issue for years and still people are getting spat on and stabbed. The security within hospitals is still inadequate.” He called on the state government to increase staffing levels and provide special training to hospital security guards to safeguard workers as well as patients and visitors. Provided […]