More than 50 people gathered outside Auckland Hospital on Tuesday afternoon to protest against assaults on mental health workers.
The Auckland District Health Board has released figures showing 213 incidents of assault at the hospital's Te Whetu Tawera mental health inpatient service over the past 12 months.
One worker at the protest said he 15 staff members had recently left the unit and he did not want others leaving because they did not feel safe in the job.
Organiser for the Public Service Association, Brendon Lane says staff at work in Te Whetu Tawera have been kicked and punched.
The board's Nurse Director for Mental Health Services, Anna Schofield, says staff turnover at the unit is within normal limits but the concerns of staff are being taken very seriously.
She says the DHB needs to better understand the data it collects on assault so that it can differentiate between serious assaults and minor ones.
