The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions polled nearly two thousand hospital staff in seven Ontario communities, asking them about violence in the workplace and Union President Michael Hurley says the results are alarming.

The poll says 42 per cent of nurses and support workers have experience at least one incident of sexual assault in the past year and 75 per cent have witnessed at least one voilent incident against a co-worker.

Hurley says the numbers taken in Sudbury are even worse.

Scott Sharp says he took a chance putting his name out there in the public for fear of backlash after he suffered a spinal injury when he was thrown into a wall by a patient on Crystal Meth while working in Guelph.

The poll finds 44 per cent of workers were afraid of reprisal if they spoke out.

Hurley says they have been calling on the province to provide staffing and resources to eliminate these situations in the workforce.