A frightening one-punch attack on a Melbourne heart surgeon has Australia's medical community demanding better protection.

Weapons, brazen outburst and very public violence are putting the lives of those trying to save lives at risk.

Exclusive body camera footage from inside the Royal Melbourne Hospital obtained by A Current Affair shows security staff try to reason with an aggressive patient they suspect is hiding a weapon.

After a frustrating back and forth, the man finally hands over a pair of scissors, but continues to ramp up the aggression after security staff try to take shaving razors he has hidden.

His aggressive behaviour prompts staff to ask him to leave, but he just gets worse.

"F--- off, you f---," the man yells at security staff.

Once guards manage to escort the man out, he can be seen slowly unzipping his bag in the CCTV and pulls out what he had actually been hiding: a machete.

A man gets up close and confronts staff behind a security barrier

The man flings himself through the security barrier

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said staff suffer these kinds of attacks every day.

"Our members are being spat at, they're being punched, they have plastic knives held to their throats," she said.

Another violent incident at the triage desk of Royal Melbourne Hospital demonstrates exactly the kind of violence staff face.

An angry man can be seen lashing out with a chair.

He is warned, but chases the staff member inside.

The staff member dares to return, but is attacked again.

The rampage continues, with staff and patients close by, until the man turns his anger on a glass window.

A man terrorises a hospital waiting room with a chair

The man then chases after staff with a chair

This kind of violence is familiar to brain surgeon Michael Wong.

He was walking through the foyer of Melbourne's Western Hospital when a former patient pounced on him.

"I just came within a hairline of death, literally, and it was just pure luck, a miracle, that I survived," Dr Wong said.

"There was so much blood on the floor, I actually slipped and fell on the floor and this guy then jump on top of me and just keep stabbing me."

Dr Michael Wong is lucky to be alive after being attacked at work

Lacerations to Dr Wong's back

Dr Wong was stabbed 14 times.

"Someone pulled me through the double doors of the emergency department and that's how my life was saved," he said.

"I lost pretty much all of my blood, I went through 10 hours of surgery."

Dr Wong has been back working for three years, but seeing the footage of a one-punch attack on Dr Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann at Melbourne's Box Hill Hospital last month stoked anger inside him.

Dr Pritzwald-Stegmann is now in a critical condition at the Alfred Hospital.

The attack on the respected heart surgeon, a beloved father of twins, has sent a shudder through the medical world.

"It's time that the policy makers, the hospital administrators need to realise we are living in an increasingly violent society. We can't just think these sort of attacks on hospital workers are rare," Dr Wong said.

This incident with a security guard was captured when the man's children were present

Paramedic Shelly Black is preparing to testify in court after a patient allegedly punched her in the face.

"She was alcohol-affected and we were having a chat about how we were going to get her home safely that night. She just out of nowhere turned and punched me in the face," Ms Black said of the alleged incident.

But this wasn't Ms Black's only close call.

"Spat at, pushed and threatened with a knife, and stuck out on a balcony with an abusive person when I was pregnant," Ms Black said.

"We need to move on from, 'It's a part of our job.' It's not and it won't be tolerated."

A man smashes another man's guitar in a hospital ward

The daily violence and threat to staff safety has doctors calling for drastic change.

"Currently, you can walk straight through to a ward and do harm to a patient if you really wanted to," Dr Wong said.

"I think we should start thinking about whether those wards should simply have security doors."

Today, the Victorian Government launched an education campaign in an effort to try and educate the community about respect.

The government is doubling its safety fund with another $20 million.