Alex Trelinski
ASSAULTS on doctors in Alicante province rose by 37% in 2024, according to the Alicante College of Physicians(COMA).
58% of the victims were male doctors- mainly under 35 years of age.
There were 26 notified cases to COMA with five physical assaults as opposed to two reported in 2023.
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Threats and coercion against doctors rose to 16 from 13, and there were five instances of verbal aggression.
The vast majority of reported incidents, 26, were within the public health system.
Health and primary care emergency centres accounted for 65% of assaults collated by COMA.
The aggressor profile in Alicante province is male and aged under 40.
Flashpoints tended to be dissatisfaction with medical care that was provided and patients disagreeing with prescribed medications.
COMA secretary-general, Dr. Jose Manuel Peris, said doctors are increasingly denouncing violent acts that ‘they experience on too many occasions’ but the figures ‘ do not reflect the magnitude of the problem’.
“There are many more incidents but are not reported for fear of possible reprisals or the bureaucracy behind filing a complaint, or the derisory punishments handed to offenders,” he stated.
“We need stronger penalties, in addition to a specific law against attacks on health staff as exists in other regions,“ Peris demanded.
He urged doctors to always report any aggression.
“Of course threats, coercion, insults, and humiliation should never happen and doctors do not deserve this.”
Dr. Peris warned such incidents would become ‘normalised’ if offenders were not reported to the police.
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