Anxiety, uncertainty, grievance and grief are the emotions that patients and families have to cope with when they are fighting illnesses. Sometimes, they may shift their negative feelings to frontline medical staff through verbal abuse, denigration, or even physical assault. To safeguard the health and safety of our colleagues, Hospital Authority has established comprehensive policies, guidelines and safety management system to prevent and handle workplace violence. Several new measures have been introduced to enhance colleagues’ awareness, knowledge and ability in handling workplace violence, such as the launching of a new online awareness course, organisation of forums for frontline staff and supervisors and provision of training on breakaway, control and restraint training to staff in high-risk departments of workplace violence.

Comprehensive education to
maintain high awareness

To enhance the prevention of workplace violence, HA has been organising a wide range of training programmes to strengthen staff’s awareness of workplace violence and ability to handle the incidents, including: