​Barry Jennings has been punched, kicked, spat on, had chairs thrown at him and almost been stabbed while working as a security guard at Nepean Hospital.

But he never thought he would face the barrel of a gun at work, coming within an inch of his life.

The veteran security guard of 28 years was shot in the calf on January 12 by an ice-affected patient who allegedly took a doctor hostage before grabbing a police officer's weapon during a struggle on the emergency department floor.

Still wearing the bandages and walking with a limp, he attended a summit on Monday with NSW Health officials, doctors, nurses, security officers to discuss critical safety issues in NSW hospitals.

"We cop it every day and we usually just take it on the chin but this draws the line for me," Mr Jennings, 48, told Fairfax Media. "That bullet only had to hit me a bit further up and you'd be talking to my family instead of me."

In the wake of the shooting, Health Minister Jillian Skinner promised an overhaul of hospital security, including increasing staff for hospitals with high levels of ice presentations and auditing 20 emergency departments around the state.

Following Monday's summit, Mrs Skinner endorsed a 12-point action plan that included intensive training in dealing with aggressive patients and new TAFE courses with a health-bent for hospital security guards.

Ice-related presentations in NSW hospitals have increased more than seven-fold between 2009 and 2014. Mr Jennings said police often dump volatile patients on their doorstep yet security guards have no restraints and few powers to subdue.

"I've seen six police officers drag one guy out of the police car, cuffed, kicking, screaming, and walk in and dump him with two of us who just have radios," he said. "I'm not blaming it on police but there is only two or three of us on duty at any given time for the entire hospital."

"I don't know the answers but this shouldn't happen to anyone. You go to work to make a living, you don't go to work expecting to get shot.

"It's a hospital, people go there to get help to get fixed up. You don't expect people to start wrestling with a security officer and getting a gun."

While he is on the mend physically, he said he is having trouble sleeping and lies awake at night wondering, "what if?"

His youngest son doesn't want him going back to work.

"I have a young family, I just don't know if I can do this anymore," he said.

Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes said he hopes to see extra staff on within three months.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association said the roundtable held a general consensus that "the prevalence of violent and aggressive incidents occurring in the state's public hospitals needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency".

"Given the escalating nature of these incidents and the fact they are occurring in both metropolitan and regional hospital settings, as well as beyond emergency departments, we are all of the view that appropriately trained security staff are paramount," the NSWNMA said in a statement on Monday evening.

Acting Sergeant Luke Warburton remains in hospital after patient Michael De Guzman allegedly grabbed his gun and fired four shots. One hit the officer's femoral artery, passing through and lodging in Mr Jennings' calf.

Monday's meeting came as police investigated a violent incident at St George Hospital on Sunday in which a patient's family allegedly threatened a doctor.