Three acts of vandalism in the last two weeks have pushed the endurance and resistance capacity of the health personnel at the CAP El Temple in Tortosa (Baix Ebre) to the limit. “Enough of attacks on both furniture and staff. Public services belong to everyone and are paid for by everyone. We ask all citizens for responsibility. Enough is enough!!”, the coordinator of this primary care center.
The last attack, captured in several images shared on social networks by health personnel, was of great virulence. Fortunately, the staff was able to protect themselves and there were no personal injuries. The act of vandalism left part of the CAP El Temple’s computer equipment lying on the floor and one of the sinks unusable.
This is by no means an isolated event. In recent weeks, the health staff at the Temple CAP have suffered harassment from several people who come to demand that doctors prescribe them psychotropic drugs. These are problems in a very advanced state of drug addiction who also want to stockpile the medicines to resell them on the black market, as suspected by the medical staff of the CAP El Temple.
The attacks, with a repeated siege based on insults and threats, have frightened and outraged the health personnel of the primary care center, which is in operation seven days a week and 24 hours a day, because it also performs emergency functions. medical.
Health personnel feel absolutely unprotected and have asked for help from the General Directorate of Primary Care of the Generalitat, with full powers. Sources from the Department of Health, asked about the problem at CAP El Temple, explained that the General Directorate of Primary Care is analyzing what happened. The Department of the Interior is also on the case of acts of vandalism and attacks, so far fortunately none of the doctors, nurses or guards have been injured.
In one of the violent episodes, one of the attackers even showed a knife as a threat if he was not treated as he believed.
The CAP El Temple does not have surveillance personnel or any other protection measures. At night, after midnight, it closes its doors but opens, logically, when someone comes asking for medical attention. The fear and feeling of lack of protection is shared by the two doctors, two nurses and the caretaker who serve in this primary care center. The threats have also occurred during the day and especially at night.
“It’s like going to war, it’s a continuum. People in an advanced situation of drug dependence are demanding prescriptions for psychotropic drugs,” explains one of the doctors. “When they are told no, because they ask for things that cannot be done, they become violent and aggressive. They put a knife on the table on a colleague and one threw one of the CAP furniture at another user,” he says. he.
Another of the health workers emphasizes that this is not a specific event and that insults occur in many of the guards. “It prevents us from doing our job,” he laments.
The Temple neighborhood of Tortosa is not a conflictive or degraded area of ??the capital of Baix Ebre. “It is the last straw that broke the camel’s back, luckily the companion was able to run away in the last vandalism attack and was able to escape,” he adds.
