Dozens of sexual assault nurse examiners will be hired in New South Wales in a bid to deal with the increasing number of sexual assault presentations, amid a statewide shortage of trained medical professionals.
The state government will pledge almost $53m over four years to fund the positions when it hands down its first budget on Tuesday, having already scrapped the public sector wage cap in a bid to bolster health services.
Sexual assault presentations to NSW Health rose from just over 53,000 in 2016-17 to more than 65,000 in 2019-20. Presentations to police jumped 36% in the 10 years to 2021.
The goal was to enable every local health district to provide 24/7 crisis coverage for adult and child victims of sexual assault, with the ability to provide specialist medical and forensic response within two hours.
That would represent a better experience than many women face now, according to Catherine McGowan, a sexual assault nurse examiner.
“We’ve had instances where people who have been assaulted have had to wait all day and see someone who’s on call after hours. That’s just not OK,” she said.
Delays can also affect the victim’s wellbeing and the chance of criminal prosecution.
“It’s more traumatising but, also … you can lose evidence the longer you wait,” McGowan said.
“It’s a very time-sensitive service and that’s why the hours matter so much.”
The money will fund 36 full-time equivalent sexual assault nurse examiners, five full-time equivalent sexual assault and domestic violence-trained medical officers and seven full-time equivalent paediatric child protection leads.
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said timely care was important and the extra positions would enable support to reach victim-survivors in all parts of the state.
“People who experience sexual assault need a safe, timely and holistic public health response provided by specially trained counsellors, doctors and nurses working together,” he said.
“These services also enable the collection of forensic evidence in a trauma-informed way with patient consent to support criminal investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators of sexual assault, reducing any delays and loss of evidence.”
The domestic violence and sexual assault prevention minister, Jodie Harrison, said the support would be “trauma-informed” and enable crisis care “when and where it was needed”.
