The Belgian Order of Physicians plans to create a list of “at risk” patients, who could no longer receive care except under strict security conditions.
A general practitioner received several stab wounds in his office last Thursday in Belgium. The attack was perpetrated in Forest, one of the 19 municipalities in the Brussels-Capital region.
In more detail, we know that the 60-year-old practitioner was stabbed in his office shortly after 8 a.m. by a 38-year-old individual who immediately fled before being arrested shortly after the attack, which is still unknown. the reason. The latest news is that the victim is in critical condition in hospital.
63% of Belgian doctors already attacked
And this aggression is probably too much for Belgian GPs. Many of them still have in mind the assassination, last December, of a general practitioner from West Flanders, in full consultation, by a patient known to the police. Worse, a recent survey of 218 doctors indicated that 63% of them had already been assaulted, with physical violence in a fifth of cases. Faced with so much violence, the Belgian Medical Association decided to react.
In a press release published this week, he said he was “dismayed to learn that again a general practitioner has been the victim of a violent attack”. Of course, “his first thoughts are with the victim, who is currently fighting for his life, and his family,” he wrote.
A “solid” security plan announced
But the Belgian CNOM is not fatalistic. On his site, he indicates that he has created a central point of contact for “Attacks against doctors”, accessible on www.ordomedic.be, where doctors are encouraged to mention any form of aggression or fear of aggression.
“An adequate strategic plan is being drawn up with the competent authorities. It must make it possible to effectively support doctors in the exercise of their mission, he specifies. “The analysis of the characteristics of the nature of the aggression, the person of the doctor and the aggressor, the place and time of the incident (anonymous processing) will be used in collaboration with the competent public bodies with a view to ‘establish a solid security plan,’ he announces.
Towards a blacklist of dangerous patients
Launched exactly two months ago, twelve assaults, often verbal, have so far been listed on this portal. Figures that encourage the Order to move up a gear since it plans to create a blacklist of potentially dangerous patients. In the Belgian daily The evening, Dr Benoît Dejemeppe, President of the Belgian Medical Association, says he is ready to “identify people who present more difficulties than others and ensure that if they need care, they are not received by a doctor on his own to avoid a possible passage to the act”.
“There is no question of depriving anyone of legitimate care, but of doing it under reinforced security conditions if we realize that this patient is known for violence”, immediately added Benoît Dejemeppe. And Belgian doctors are in a hurry to see the results of this national consultation. In a press release, the Belgian Association of Medical Unions (ABSyM) is impatient: “When will there be adequate security measures for general practitioners? “, she asks.
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