Patients and relatives turn on doctors and nurses, with 16,000 reports of physical and verbal assaults in 2023 alone

Loreto Gesualdo, the president of the Italian Federation of Medical-Scientific Societies (Fism), has proposed legislation to suspend free access to medical care for three years for those who assault healthcare workers or damage health facilities.

Fism reported more than 16,000 verbal and physical attacks against doctors and nurses in Italian hospitals in 2023 alone.

  • ZacryonEnglish
    202·
    6 days ago

    Why do they get attacked though?

    Edit: got time to read he article:

    Many of the assaults are caused by the shortage of hospital staff and family members’ frustration at the resulting long waiting times for surgery and consultations.

    According to the doctors’ union ANAAO, until 2022 almost half of positions in emergency medicine were vacant. Salary-cap legislation over the past two decades to curb public spending has kept salaries low, and work schedules are punishing. For many Italian medical staff, the Covid pandemic was the tipping point, accelerating an exodus abroad. Spending plans published by Giorgia Meloni’s government envisage further healthcare cuts.

    In 2023, according to the Forum delle Società Scientifiche dei Clinici Ospedalieri e Universitari Italiani, there was a shortage of approximately 30,000 doctors in Italy. Between 2010 and 2020, 111 hospitals and 113 emergency rooms closed.

    Yeah, sounds totally reasonable to put soldiers in hospitals in order to solve these problems. /s smh

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
      8·
      5 days ago

      The healthcare workers deserve protection from violence even when the root cause is somewhere else. You can provide that security while also moving to fix the shortages. It doesn’t have to be one or the another.

      • KissakiEnglish
        4·
        5 days ago

        I also don’t see how the cause would warrant or excuse aggression or assault.

        Soldiers/Police protecting staff ensures they can work. assault and lack of protection does the opposite.