A call tonight for security staff 24/7 at every emergency department in the country in response to a growing number of violent incidents.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine wants all political parties to promise ahead of the election they will deliver.
It says long waits for care are dangerous for everyone, with rising levels of aggression in EDs and appropriately trained security staff need to be posted around the clock to protect struggling staff.
An RNZ investigation in August showed staff at North shore and Waitakere Hospitals have called security or hit panic buttons thousands of times within a seven month period, due to violence and abuse by patients and visitors.
That included 529 code greys where staff called security via an internal emergency number.
Guards also had to physically restrain people on 237 separate occasions during that time.
