At the gates of the Riuniti hospital in Foggia, Puglia, a banner was hung that read: “I care about you but I’m not safe.” Around 500 people, most of them in white coats, gathered on Monday 16 September to express their discontent. A platform was set up on a square of grass and doctors, nurses and trade unionists stood behind the microphone. It was here, in the region’s largest hospital, that another attack on medical staff took place on the evening of 4 September.
Around 50 people besieged the thoracic surgery department, sexually assaulting doctors and beating nurses following the death of a 23-year-old woman a few hours earlier. Video of the attack, which has gone viral, shows doctors barricading themselves in a surgery to call the police.
Ten days later, a similar incident occurred in the hospital in Pescara, in Abbruze, in the east of the country. In less than a week, other cases of assault have been reported in Turin, Vibo Valentia, in Calabria, and in Campobasso, in the Molise region, in the south.
All these stories sum up the growing discontent of the medical profession on the peninsula. “We are in a dramatic situation, violence has become a daily occurrence”explains Pierino di Silverio, general secretary of Anaao-Assomed, one of the main medical unions from Italy. “We came to give strength to our comrades”specifies this surgeon who traveled from Naples for the occasion.
16,000 cases of assault in 2023
If the attacks are not new, how did we get here? “We have been cutting the health budget for fifteen yearsPierino di Silverio answers. Patients become violent because they are faced with a lack of care and endless waiting lists. In most of the testimonies, the same observation of injustice is often repeated, when the medical profession is held responsible for the dysfunctions of the public hospital.
Doctors are also concerned about a trend that has accelerated with Covid-19, which they call “Doctor Google” : the propensity to search online for ready-made answers to treat pathologies and to promote self-medication. “With the Internet, everyone believes they have the right to an intervention like other patients, but the clinical field varies from one person to another, people no longer realize it”“This is the case,” said Adda di Fiorra, who has been working at the Foggia hospital for ten years. Although she did not suffer any physical harm, the anaesthetist has been verbally assaulted on several occasions in recent months.
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