CODE BLACKOUT: When Violence Becomes Routine, Silence Is Not an Option
Queensland hospitals are in crisis — not just from underfunding or overcrowding, but from violence.
Real, escalating, often brutal violence.
In the past year alone, more than 16,000 violent incidents were recorded against healthcare workers in Queensland hospitals. That’s more than 45 assaults every single day — and those are just the ones reported.
The Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland (NPAQ) is launching Campaign CODE BLACKOUT to expose the systemic failures behind this crisis and demand urgent, structural solutions. This is a campaign built by nurses and midwives, for nurses and midwives. Because silence is complicity — and we refuse to stand by.
A System Failing Its Frontline
Our members are reporting being kicked, stalked, harassed, and bashed — in corridors, in car parks, even just metres from emergency department doors. The most shocking part? Security guards are often told not to intervene.
At Ipswich Hospital, a nurse was assaulted metres from the ED. Two colleagues rushed to help — one broke their wrist. Meanwhile, hospital security stood by and watched.
Tragically, this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s happening across the state — in Cairns, Logan, Caboolture, Redcliffe and beyond. And it’s not just the violence inside hospital walls. It’s the unsafe streets, the car parks without lighting or CCTV, the lack of duress alarms, inadequate parking, and non-existent or unreliable shuttle services.
It is, bluntly, an occupational safety collapse.