She'd just survived a vicious attack while working and now that she was home she had to explain her injuries to her small children.

"Mum went off to work okay but came home with a black eye and concussion. Really hard to tell my young kids about that," she said.

Darelle Barrett had been caring for a patient who was drug and alcohol affected. "Without warning she lashed out at me and started punching me, knocked me unconscious. I ended up on the floor of the ambulance," Ms Barrett said.

"After the police dragged her off me I had bite marks all the way down my body, dislocated jaw, and scratch marks around my arm and a black eye."

She shared her story at the launch of a new WorkSafe television advertising campaign calling for the public to respect healthcare workers and to stop attacking them.

On Tuesday Health Minister Jill Hennessy also pledged to double the funding for health service initiatives aimed at protecting staff, from $20 million to $40 million.

Some of the extra funds will be used to establish behavioural assessment rooms to manage and assess aggressive emergency department patients at University Hospital Geelong, Austin Hospital, Casey Hospital, Northern Hospital and Warrnambool Base Hospital.

The announcement comes as Box Hill Hospital surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann remains in a critical condition after being knocked unconscious in the hospital's foyer on May 30.

Dr Pritzwald-Stegmann 's alleged attacker, Joseph Esmaili, has been charged with recklessly causing serious injury.

"What's important is that we're identifying where the risks are in the different settings and then funding how we can best reduce the risk of occupational violence and aggression with that money," Ms Hennessy said. "But we've also got to continue to change the culture."

Nurse Tara Merryfell was managing the St Vincent's emergency department one night when an ice affected patient cornered a nurse in a cubicle, threatening her and other staff with used syringes. She said it wasn't until he damaged property that police charged him.

"He assaulted a staff member and that wasn't taken serious enough but when there was actual damage to property that was when he was arrested," she said.

"I've only been physically struck once but I've dodged quite a few, and most of the staff in the ED have similar situations."

Almost every hour a health worker is bitten, spat at, punched, abused or threatened while trying to care for patients in Victorian hospitals, Fairfax Media reported in October.

Earlier this year, Fairfax Media revealed hospitals were putting violent patients into comas as a last resort to protect staff who were being sprayed with blood, held hostage, and bashed on the job.

Simon Judkins, a spokesman for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said some people with ice-induced psychosis were now being put into comas, and placed on ventilators in intensive care units for 24 hours to protect themselves and staff who do not have enough resources to restrain them.

He said all emergency departments needed secure rooms for such patients.

Dr Michael Wong was the victim of an assault three years ago. Photo: Eddie Jim

Neurosurgeon Michael Wong - who almost died after being stabbed in the foyer of a Footscray Hospital three years ago - criticised the government for not doing enough to protect health staff in the wake of the the latest attack on a surgeon.

Ms Hennessy said the "horror" attack on Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann had "brought into crisp and stark reality the great challenge that so many of our health workforce members endure and encounter each and every single day".

WorkSafe chief executive Clare Amies said the community needed to step up to protect health staff but so did employers.

"Employers have to make sure they've got cultures where workers speak up and know that their health and safety and their wellbeing is an absolute priority in the workplace," she said.

"We need workers to actually report when occupational violence is occurring in the workplace."