A recent study by the Federation of Health and Social Services Sectors of the CCOO PV union has revealed chilling figures regarding conflict between patients and staff, showing that 73.5% of non-medical staff and 85.8% of medical staff within the Valencian Health Department have suffered some type of assault while working in the Valencian Community. The situation has reached a point where assaults in the Valencian public healthcare system are considered structural and normalised, affecting all employees and stemming from a common root cause: system collapse. In a recent escalation of this trend, National Police officers in Elche arrested a 43-year-old man as the alleged perpetrator of an assault on a law enforcement officer, after he attacked a healthcare worker at the Elche University General Hospital while she was performing her duties in the Emergency Department.
The incident occurred, according to information provided by the National Police, during medical assistance to a patient with a fracture. According to the complaint filed, as medical personnel attempted to reduce the injury, the patient became aggressive, apparently due to pain, and punched the healthcare worker several times in the back. He then allegedly grabbed the victim by the shoulders and shook her violently while shouting for them not to touch him. Following the incident, the woman went to the police station to file a report, also providing a workplace accident report. The officers then began the necessary investigations to clarify what had happened and to fully identify the alleged perpetrator.
During the investigation, the police were able to confirm that the victim was a public employee and that the assault occurred while she was performing her job duties at Elche General Hospital. For this reason, the incident was initially classified as an alleged assault on a law enforcement officer, which is the legal classification used in these cases. Finally, officers from the Judicial Police Brigade of the Elche Police Station located the alleged perpetrator and arrested him, informing him of his rights as a detainee. After the police investigation was completed, the arrested man was brought before the duty magistrate in Elche.
The action is part of the prevention and response measures against attacks on healthcare professionals, reinforced through the figure of the Healthcare Police Liaison. This is a tool promoted to improve coordination between the Security Forces and healthcare centres in the face of the increase in this type of incident, with the aim of preventing new attacks and offering a faster and more effective police response, as reported by the National Police.
In fact, the report presented last March by the Federation of Health and Social Services Sectors of the CCOO PV union was based on surveys of more than three thousand professionals conducted between November and February of this year. Significantly, among the most disheartening findings of the study was the indication that assaults have become chronic, with more than half of the staff suffering repeated mistreatment. A total of 46% of professionals acknowledged having experienced these attacks more than once during the same year, and 17% of non-medical staff and 28.5% of medical staff reported having suffered assaults once or more each month. Furthermore, the majority of staff choose not to report the mistreatment they receive from patients or family members, with half of the non-medical staff saying they never report it (53.8%), while only 22% of medical staff reported the most serious incidents, and only 22% admitted to always reporting them. Fortunately, in this case there was a complaint and subsequent arrest by the National Police officers of Elche.
