Patient in Covid-19 ward spat towards nurses on “four to six occasions”

"Personally I was in shock, as you can imagine."

A staff nurse working on a Covid-19 ward in an Irish hospital has said that on Tuesday, he was spat at by an abusive and disruptive patient. Damien, who did not give his full name or the location of the hospital, said he was called with another male member of staff to help restrain a patient for around 20 minutes. Speaking on Today with Sean O'Rourke on RTÉ Radio One, Damien said he and his colleague were forced to restrain the "extremely disruptive" woman while a single room was prepared for her. During this time, Damien said she spat at them on four to six occasions, towards the sides of their heads and the side of their faces. "She was transferred to a single room and once she was in the single room, her family members arrived," Damien said. "My colleague had a superficial wound to his arm dressed. Personally I was in shock, as you can imagine." Damien said he suffered no physical injuries and will go back to work in the next couple of days, but he's upset by the incident. "I spoke to the Gardaí about this and they said they can't take a statement off me for 14 days for health and safety reasons," he said. The woman has been tested for Covid-19 and remains at the hospital.