Doctors, nurses and janitors at the CAP del Temple, in Tortosa (Baix Ebre), are suffering first-hand the helplessness that health personnel so often report due to situations of harassment, verbal and sometimes even physical attacks, all and that so far this has not been the case, fortunately.
As a result of the lack of answers from the general direction of Primary Care, the medical coordinator of this primary care center chose on Tuesday morning to report the reiteration of acts of vandalism and verbal aggression in her CAP, in a message on social media with images of the damage to furniture and computer equipment from the latest attack this week.
“We are very burned, because of the situation and because we have not had support”, one of the members of the CAP del Temple medical team explained to this newspaper yesterday. The case, with strong repercussions after it was made public on Tuesday on La Vanguardia’s website, has forced the Generalitat to change its game. “From the direction and management of Primary Care, the cases are being monitored and the corresponding measures will be applied in coordination with the Department of the Interior”, sources from the
Salud has not yet specified what these measures will consist of. It must be assumed that to improve the protection of the health personnel of the CAP del Temple, which does not have a surveillance service. Doctors, nurses and caretakers have not been informed of how the response to their complaints of helplessness and harassment will take place.
Specifically, three acts of vandalism in the last two weeks with verbal attacks and damage to furniture and the . The origin of the attacks, the doctors’ refusal to prescribe psychotropic drugs. The perpetrators of the violent harassment, people in situations of drug addiction.
Salut, twenty-four hours after the case was made public, limited itself to acknowledging that “between October and November there have been three isolated incidents, which have involved verbal aggression and acts of vandalism on the furniture”. The Ministry added that all incidents have been reported to the Mossos.
The Department of Health emphasizes that “in public service environments, such as the CAP del Temple, there are protocols for exceptional cases that are activated whenever necessary, and professionals have mechanisms and support for situations of violence”. It should also be remembered that since last year there has been an observatory for situations of violence in the health sector of Catalonia.
In recent weeks, the healthcare staff at the CAP del Temple have been harassed by some people who go there to demand that the doctors prescribe them the psychotropic drugs they want. These are users in a very advanced state of drug addiction who, in addition, want to stock up on opiates to resell on the black market. In one of the violent episodes, one of the attackers put a knife on the table as a threat.
The CAP of the Tortosí neighborhood of Temple provides service seven days a week and 24 hours a day, because it also has a medical emergency service. “This way we can’t do our job. It’s like going to war, you don’t know what will happen to you. When they are told no to a prescription for psychotropic medication, because they are asking for things that cannot be done for them, they become violent and aggressive”, they explain.
At the center, the health staff are confident that, despite the tepid public response given by Health, after the case has come to light, the batteries will be used from now on.
