A man was brought before the Béthune prosecutor’s office for assaulting an emergency doctor. Just as exasperated by the attacks, general practitioners want urgent measures.
This is perhaps too much aggression for a medical profession already exasperated by the violence affecting health professionals. On Wednesday, a 32-year-old man was brought before the Béthune (Pas-de-Calais) prosecutor’s office for assaulting an emergency doctor and a police officer.
It was following a malaise and the intervention of the emergency services at home, that the man took to task the firefighters and the doctors who had to call the police. Despite the presence of the police, the man did not calm down and injured a policeman with a head butt. Death threats and insults were also made against them, according to The voice of the North.
Aggression does not decrease
Placed in custody at the Béthune police station, the man admitted the facts, without explaining them, “I did anything, I was in a nervous breakdown. I just wanted to be left alone, to leave, ”he told the police, visibly marked by his alcoholic evening the day before.
Two police officers and the SMUR doctor decided to file a complaint. And the Lens hospital – on which the SMUR teams depend – has also decided to sue the Douvrinois. The latter will have to answer for his actions in court next March. Just like his brother-in-law, who opposed the arrest with outrages.
Attacks against practitioners are not declining in France. In 2015, 924 verbal or physical attacks of this type were reported by the Observatory for Physician Safety (ONSM). This report reveals, moreover, that 65% of them concern general practitioners. All this while knowing that 56% of violence was not reported to the authorities in 2015 …
And the causes of the attacks confirm the rise in tensions in waiting rooms. In the majority of cases, the aggressors complain about the assumption of responsibility (33%), refusals of prescription (16%) and excessive waiting times (9%).
GPs want urgent action
The CSMF (1), the first liberal doctors’ union, calls for urgent measures. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the savage assault of a general practitioner last Friday in Châtellerault (Vienne) in his doctor’s office by a patient. The practitioner suffered a head trauma with loss of consciousness. Verdict: 6 months in prison for the aggressor.
In a press release published on Wednesday, The Generalists of the CSMF recalled that they are often “the last social link present in all difficult situations, whether in town, in rural areas or in lawless areas. They are therefore more exposed and confronted with violent acts which always have harmful consequences on the exercise of their profession ”, they continue.
But above all, the union considers that it is up to the public authorities “to tackle this societal problem head on and take all measures so that doctors, and more generally health professionals, are protected professionals”. These general practitioners are now calling on the government and Health Insurance “to take urgent measures to protect them in the course of their practice, otherwise no incentive will be of a nature to make the medical specialty most neglected by future doctors more attractive” .
(1) Confederation of French Medical Syndicates
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