{"id":585520,"date":"2026-08-31T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/585520\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T04:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:00:13","slug":"man-accused-of-smashing-hospital-clinic-windows-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/585520\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of smashing hospital clinic windows"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man is facing criminal charges after he smashed windows at a sexual health clinic in the latest incident of aggression at a public hospital.<\/p>\n

By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

The man is due in the Hamilton District Court next month over the attack on August 17. <\/p>\n

A witness, who requested anonymity, said he arrived at the Waikato Hospital clinic about 11.30am that day to find it damaged and staff shaken.<\/p>\n

\"Waikato<\/p>\n

Waikato Hospital. (Source: Waikato Hospital)<\/p>\n

The witness said the reception area was closed, because most of its windows were broken, and patients were waiting in the hallway.<\/p>\n

“Windows were already boarded up when I arrived,” the witness said. “One of the admin staff-receptionists told me that a patient had attended the service about an hour ago, appeared agitated having to wait, then after a short while started smashing windows.”<\/p>\n

This comes after RNZ revealed a case of intimidating behaviour at Palmerston North Hospital’s<\/a> emergency department, where security officers appeared powerless to intervene.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman was shocked to witness “intimidating” behaviour from a patient at Palmerston North Hospital. (Source: rnz.co.nz)<\/p>\n

RNZ has previously reported that there are growing numbers of incidents of violence and intimidation in New Zealand hospitals.<\/p>\n

The witness to the aftermath of the Waikato incident said the clinic was staffed mostly by female administrators and nurses, and the incident left them clearly rattled.<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand’s group director for operations in Waikato, Stephanie Doe, said staff at the clinic followed safety procedures, including contacting security and police.<\/p>\n

“No patients or staff were injured during the incident. Patients who were present at the time were supported by staff and were able to continue with their appointments,” Doe said.<\/p>\n

“Staff received immediate support following the incident, and a review of the event and related security processes is being undertaken.”<\/p>\n

She said Health NZ’s priority was the safety of its patients and staff.<\/p>\n

Police confirmed they were called to the scene after reports of a man damaging property.<\/p>\n

They said a 36-year-old man was arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour, wilful damage and intentional damage. He would appear in court on September 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man is facing criminal charges after he smashed windows at a sexual health clinic in the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,134,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-585520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}