Ms Sylvia Chambers:

Absolutely. Parents are waiting ten and 12 hours, especially overnight, and it could be 4 o'clock in the morning, which is the time when instead of knocking on the door, a parent is kicking the door. They have to advocate for their child but our hands are tied. As I said, there are two doctors left between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. At that point, there could be 60 to 70 patients in the department waiting to see a doctor, with two doctors trying to provide care for all of those patients. That is not feasible. When a knock comes on the door, it is the nurse who opens the door to that verbal aggression, and sometimes it can be physical.

It is not appropriate. I want to be able to go to work and to provide care. I am trained to do that and I take so much pride in my work, but I do not feel safe going to work. I could be verbally abused four or five times in that night but I will not put in an incident report form because I am too busy. I have 24 admitted patients that I have to provide care to, and I cannot to sit down at the desk and write incident reports, much as I would like to. I want all of that documented but I do not have the time because I have to prioritise patient care.