The button, a simple device that fits into the doctor's computer via a USB port, has been trialed in Cooma, Bega, Pambula, Yass, Young, Bungendore and Canberra for the past two years with generally good results.

"There's been no problems with it so far that I'm aware of," Dr Steiner said.

Dr Steiner said based on the trial, the product was now ready to roll out to other surgeries across the country, but he warned that doctors should not become complacent.

"So far it seems to have worked really well," Dr Steiner said.

"There have been a few things over the last 10 years and a couple of cases, at least two, where doctors have been killed by patients that got me thinking about it.

"But it's not a complete solution."

Dr Steiner said that GP's should use the button as a back up and that it should not replace training on dealing with threatening and difficult patients.

"In Cooma we're really lucky, we don't tend to have problems with aggressive patients compared to some of the places I've done locums in," Dr Steiner said.

The easy to install button and software has been useful as a method to alert his Cooma colleagues of an emergency, Dr Steiner said.

"We tend to use the emergency button more say if a patient collapses.

"There's one at the front desk if a patient falls over or collapses at the front door of the surgery.

"Within about 60 seconds a message will appear on all of the computers that says there's an emergency and which room it is in," Dr Steiner said.