Violence in Hospitals: A Growing Social Alarm
Once again, an episode of violence occurred in a hospital in the province of Salerno. Yesterday, a healthcare worker was attacked during her shift in the Pediatric Department of the Nocera Inferiore hospital, while providing pediatric emergency care. The woman suffered treatable abrasions and has been given eight days of rest. In a statement, Fials expressed “solidarity with the healthcare worker who suffered physical violence, causing moments of terror for the entire healthcare staff and the young patients present. Shameful.”
This episode is not an isolated case. “Violence, aggression, and threats against healthcare workers are increasing phenomena, now a real social alarm that puts the safety of personnel at risk in the workplace. This union has repeatedly requested the presence of a police unit, but so far we have received a deafening silence in response to this request. It is necessary to guarantee a safe and adequate work environment, in order to provide the necessary healthcare services without endangering the lives and well-being of healthcare professionals.”
The union has repeatedly urged the Strategic Direction of the Company to intervene in order to “ensure a balance in healthcare assistance throughout the Agro Sarno-Nocerino territory and, above all, to seriously consider the issue of the pediatric emergency department that is carried out within the operating unit in question. Here, the staff employed to assist patients must also deal with the numerous accesses to the pediatric emergency room that pour outside the department, creating a crowd of people outside the entrance door.”
“Fials can no longer tolerate this massacre, it is no longer possible to meet the enormous demands for healthcare services that the Nocera hospital must satisfy every day with the same personnel. The numerous ambulances that arrive daily at the emergency room to transport patients are redirected to the hospital, and patients in need of assistance have to wait for hours due to the lack of stretchers, chairs, and beds, and are often admitted to beds arranged in the corridors of various departments. The entire hospital staff can no longer cope with the enormous demands for healthcare services. Fials asks all political forces to intervene promptly, in order to define care processes and give a real boost to territorial medicine. Fials requests an urgent meeting with the Strategic Direction, the Health Director of the hospital, and the union organizations, in order to address the healthcare emergency and create an effective healthcare assistance network through clear and well-defined planning that guarantees the right to health for all citizens.”
