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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3785 ..

(b) Average monthly no. of reported incidents

(3) For the following years there were a number of charges laid for assault at the Canberra Hospital location.

(a) 2000 - 41

(b) 2001 - 23

(c) 2002 - 9

(d) 2003 - 16 (figures for 1/1/03 to 24/8/03)

Given the time consuming nature of the task, ACT Policing cannot provide details on the number of criminal convictions resulting from these charges. This information is held by the courts.

(4) Surveys of this type have not been conducted.

(5) ACT Policing collects offence data for Canberra Hospital; however, there are a number of limitations on the figures. When recording incidents on the computer system, officers do not have to fill in the common place name 'Canberra Hospital', although they must record the location of any incident. Given this, there may be instances where incidents are recorded in the computer system but are not associated with the common name 'Canberra Hospital' field. It would be too resource intensive and time consuming to examine every individual report to identify those assaults and related offences occurring at Canberra Hospital where the officer has not used the common field. Further, this data includes all incidents within and outside Canberra Hospital and may include offences against staff as well as other people. For example, a car park assault between two visitors will be included.

Given these stipulations, the number of assault offences (sexual and non-sexual) occurring in the Canberra Hospital grounds or buildings were:

(a) 2000 - 34

(b) 2001 - 29

(c) 2002 - 29

(d) 2003 - 22 (figures for 1/1/03 to 24/8/03)

ACT Health has provided data from the Australian Incident Monitoring System (AIMS) reports, which can identify specific incidents involving patients and visitors. All reported incidents involved Mental Health Service patients or their visitors. AIMS was implemented in September 2001 and staff education is resulting in increased numbers of reports over time.

(6) Staff are encouraged by supervisors, managers and educators to report all incidents and accidents involving the potential of injury or actual injury to staff on the ACT Government Accident/Incident Report form. The form is available to staff in hard copy in all departments or through the Injury Prevention and Management Unit. The form is also available in electronic form on the Canberra Hospital intranet site.

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