Hospitals will face an "avalanche" of legal cases if security concerns are not addressed following a large rise in assaults on nurses, an employment law solicitor has warned.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for increased security across all areas of hospital campuses after a large rise in assaults on nurses.
This comes as figures reveal that more than five nurses were physically, verbally or sexually assaulted each day in the month of June.
The INMO said in 2021 the Health and Safety Authority recorded 7,477 inspections but only 446 inspections in health and social care settings, compared to 2,865 in construction.
Figures obtained by the INMO, compiled via the HSE's National Incident Management Scheme, revealed that in 2020 more than 8,667 staff reported physical, verbal and sexual assault in the workplace.
Nurses and midwives suffered 48 per cent of those injuries, with 4,166 nurses and midwives reporting some type of assault.
Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan told BreakingNews.ie: "The position in relation to it is that an employer is responsible if there is an assault on an employee."
Mr Gorgan pointed to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005, which sets out employers' responsibility for creating a safe system of work.
"If an employer has not put in a safe system of work, then they're on the hook for a personal injury claim for the injury sustained by that staff member," he explained.
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