Victoria’s Auditor-General has found hospital workers routinely face high risks to their safety, and there is much room for improvement in the way hazards are handled.

Victorian Auditor-General John Doyle has headed an audit of four public hospitals, and found both inadequate avenues for reporting unsafe incidents, and reticence to address the underlying causes.

There a range of major risks hospital workers face nearly every day, including violence from patients and visitors, exposure to infectious diseases and injuries from lifting patients, the Auditor-General said.

“These hazards can lead to musculoskeletal injuries, acute traumatic injury, infections such as hepatitis and potentially even death,” he added.

More than 10,600 WorkCover claims have been made specifically for injuries to public hospital staff over the past five years, making it one of the top three most dangerous industries.

Mr Doyle says there is a lack of focus on occupational health and safety, which has led to a culture which accepts dire safety risks.

A survey of over three thousand hospital staff was conducted as part of the audit.

Two-thirds of the respondents said they had real concerns about being injured in their current jobs. Forty-two per cent said they were routinely unable obtain the equipment or resources needed to work safely. Seventeen per cent said they had to ignore some safety procedures in order to get their work done on time.

“These responses indicate that at times staff may feel pressure to do what they know is not safe,” Mr Doyle said.

He concluded that both the Victorian health department and the state's occupational health and safety body WorkSafe need to work together to approach the issue from both sides – addressing the specific safety risks and culture of poor practice in hospitals.

The Victorian health department says it has taken the advice and is now working on a new approach with WorkSafe.