A major hospital has been forced to pay a traumatised nurse almost half a million dollars after she was locked inside a room with a notoriously violent patient, who repeatedly beat her while hidden from view.

Elly, not her real name, was working in Box Hill Hospital’s psychiatric unit when the patient began hitting and punching her and another young patient in 2021.

She was awarded $495,000 in damages from Eastern Health because high windows blocking her colleagues’ view into the room from the outside meant they could not see the man beating her, pinning the 18-year-old female patient against the wall and punching the young woman.

The veteran nurse claimed the man’s assault was prolonged because the hospital had not fixed “well known” faulty swipe card access out of the secure room, resulting in her, and other nurses who had arrived to help, being trapped.

The nurse, who had worked at Box Hill’s psychiatric unit for more than 20 years before the attack, said she now feared she and other nurses were still at risk of violent assaults.

Elly’s lawyer, Shalyn Mathew, of Arnold Thomas and Becker, said frontline workers, who were at higher risk of being assaulted, had the right to be protected as much as possible.