Hospitals issue stab-proof vests to security staff

Footscray and Sunshine hospitals will next month issue stab-proof fluorescent jackets to 60 of its security staff. 

Several other new security measures will be implemented across various hospitals, including personal alarms for nurses visiting patients off-site.

This comes after Dr Michael Wong was stabbed 30 times by a mentally ill patient in February last year and nearly lost his life.

Dr Wong told Nick McCallum it’s the right time to consider adopting the same security at hospitals as we have at airports and courts.

‘It’s not quite got to that level, but the threat is real and genuine,’ he said on Monday.

Nick McCallum labelled the situation ‘a tragedy of the modern world,’ but conceded it’s necessary. 

‘You’ve got to ask the question – what has our society become?’

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