On February 15, former President of the Evia Medical Association and Coordinating Director of the Pathology Clinic at Chalkis Hospital, George Galiotiswas attacked by a relative of an elderly patient. The rapist complained about the conditions of his mother’s hospitalization. A quarrel ensued, the man pushed the doctor hard, he fell to the floor and hit his head.

January 8 Stavros Kalpadakis, a general practitioner at the Moira Health Center in Heraklion, Crete, was attacked by an accompanying patient, breaking two ribs and a hip. The patient had an extremely low sugar level, which required serum glucose and additional glucose injections, which, as the Health Center staff present at the incident later realized, the attendant mistook for COVID-19 vaccines!

Last October in Veria, an ambulance patient hit a paramedic for disagreeing with the route the ambulance was taking. In Triasio, a hospital where employees often report incidents of violence against staff, the latest incident involved an attack by an orderly on staff at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic. In accordance with World Health Organization, between 8% and 38% of healthcare workers have experienced physical violence in the course of their work at some point in their career. Based on international studies, it is estimated that six out of ten healthcare workers have experienced some form of violence (including verbal abuse, threats and sexual harassment) in their workplace in the past year.

Feeling disappointed

“These phenomena are exacerbated at a time when society is under suffocating pressure with a concomitant deterioration in the health workforce.”

In accordance with Panhellenic Medical Association, “Violence in the health services is exacerbated in high-crime areas and at times when society is under suffocating pressure with a concomitant degradation of the health workforce.” Hospitals and medical facilities with small staff, long delays in patient care and high tensions, as well as insufficient security and easy access to places where criminal elements can invade, become the scene of almost daily incidents of violence, disrupting services and causing a sense of failure among doctors and the nurses who test them.

On the occasion of March 12, the European Day to Combat Violence Against Doctors and Healthcare Workers, PIS sent to the leadership of the Ministry of Health the proposals formulated during the recent meeting of presidents of medical associations to combat the phenomenon.

The first proposal concerns the staffing of health services with permanent staff who are numerically capable of providing reliable services to citizens by drastically reducing waiting times in the emergency department and queues for surgeries and other surgeries. The PIS also requires code-only security doors to be installed in clinics and laboratories, as well as an emergency button at the emergency department and at entry points that will notify the nearest police station in case of danger. . Staffing is also required, in the association’s view, of hospital guards with trained personnel, while emphasizing the need for the service to take responsibility for turning against the perpetrator, mobilizing the police and filing lawsuits. Finally, PIS characterizes as critical the establishment and operation of a Violence Observatory in each health service with central coordination for the reliable recording, treatment and processing of incidents.

Posters

“In our country, it is important to limit the phenomenon just before it grows uncontrollably. Already in countries such as the US and Pakistan, they are forced to take drastic measures at the entrances to medical facilities, which we must avoid, ”says PIS. It also aims to raise awareness in the community. In this regard, posters were hung in hospitals and subway stations with the inscription “No to violence against white shirts” and the call “Respect the doctors and nurses who treat you.”