Some speak of episodes of violence “punctual”. Other incivilities “newspaper”strain “latent”. But almost all the caregivers we have contacted agree on one observation: although it still seems difficult for them to make an official report, the attacks they may suffer from patients during consultations are no longer ignored, as before, in silence. .
Insults, threats, physical attacks, theft, vandalism, etc.: in 2023, 1,581 incidents were reported to the National Council of the Order of Physicians, which maintains the annual census. Compared to the 120,000 private doctors or the 60,000 hospital doctors, the figure weighs little. But in the twenty years that the order has been carrying out this survey, it is the first time that the increase is so strong: it reaches 27% between 2022 and 2023 – after having already increased by 23% the previous year.
“This is unprecedented. argued Dr. Jean-Jacques Avrane, coordinator of the order’s Security Observatory, when presenting these data to the press on Tuesday, October 8. And the figures are completely minimized, the vast majority of practitioners do not declare [les violences subies], This is only the visible side of the iceberg. » The National Observatory of Violence in the Healthcare Environment, an organization dependent on the Ministry of Health and which takes into account complaints from hospitals, registered, in 2022, 18,768 complaints from 368 establishments. Its results for 2023 are not yet known.
General practitioners are the most affected
In the healthcare world, several recent attacks have left their mark. In Marseille, on August 12, a general practitioner was beaten. Near Nantes, in September, a doctor was the target of an attempted rape. Almost eighteen months ago, the attack on a nurse, Carène Mezino, stabbed to death at the Reims university hospital, aroused national emotion and led the government to promise “zero tolerance”accompanied by a plan of about forty measures.
Women, according to data from the Order of Physicians, are slightly overrepresented and represent 56% of reported victims, both in 2023 and 2022. The type of incidents reported remains stable: almost three quarters (73%) correspond to verbal crimes. attacks or threats, 8% mention physical attacks, 8% robberies or attempted robberies, 7% acts of vandalism… Almost three quarters of the attacks were directed at liberals and 22% at hospital workers .
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