Shooting at Sydney hospital injures 2

Senior Constable Luke Warburton was the first police officer on scene following reports a 39-year-old man had held a pair of scissors to the throat of a female doctor at Nepean Hospital on Tuesday night.

Police were called out to Nepean Hospital near Penrith around 10:30 last night following reports of a man threatening a doctor with scissors. “Subsequently, the police officer and a security guard were shot”, a police spokesman said.

New South Wales Police deputy commissioner Catherine Burn told reporters outside the hospital on Wednesday the officer who was shot in his left thigh is in a “critical but stable condition”, and the incident is not terror-related despite some commentary suggesting otherwise.

The security guard has been listed as stable.

A spokeswoman for Nepean Hospital said the incident did not impact patients at the hospital, but that ambulances were being diverted to other emergency departments while a police investigation was conducted.

Both men were treated at the Nepean hospital.

The accused was once a registered nurse at Westmead Hospital, and was reportedly taking time off from work.

The shooting occurred hours later.

A critical incident team from North West Metropolitan Region will now investigate all circumstances surrounding the incident.

Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes described emergency departments as “more and more like battle grounds than areas of care”, particularly due to the violence associated with some forms of drug addiction.

“It is a insane situation we have been advocating for many years”.

“The security and welfare of staff and patients in our hospitals is always paramount”, she said.