A Melbourne neurosurgeon who nearly died in a frenzied stabbing fears more hospital staff will be attacked by violent or drug-affected patients unless security is increased.
Michael Wong says there has been no noticeable improvement in safety for doctors and nurses in public hospitals since the February 2014 attack in the foyer of the Western General Hospital.
"The community needs to do more to protect hospital workers from attacks by violent patients or the increasing number of emergency patients affected by drugs and alcohol," Dr Wong said in a victim statement.
"Measures taken in the public system since the attack on me appear to be piecemeal and tokenistic."
Dr Wong's attacker, Kareem Al-Salami, 49, was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of mental impairment.
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He was on Wednesday sent to a secure psychiatric hospital for a nominal 25-year term.
Dr Wong said while he had recovered very well, more had to be done to boost security in hospitals and prevent similar incidents from happening.
"Unless the security system improves, it is inevitable there will be more incidents like mine," he said.
Dr Wong said security was much tighter at airports where there were fewer people affected by psychiatric illness and drugs than at a hospital.
"In hospitals they're full of those people, yet the security is far less than the airport," he told reporters outside the Victorian Supreme Court.
Dr Wong called for more security guards and closed circuit television, plus safe and separate entrances and exits for doctors and nurses at hospitals.
He said all health workers want to do is help the sick and they should not be fearful of their own safety at work.
Dr Wong no longer works at Western General Hospital and has cut back his time in the public system.
The Victorian government has a $20 million health violence prevention fund that has provided stab-proof vests for security guards, new CCTV, duress alarms and access control doors at a number of hospitals.
Its May budget included $6.5 million to train frontline workers to respond safely to violence and aggressive people affected by ice.
