Health Minister Orazio Schillaci on
Wednesday said a total of 18,000 attacks involving 22,000
healthcare workers were reported in 2024.
"According to data from the ministry's Observatory on the safety
of healthcare personnel based on voluntary reports, over 18,000
attacks were reported at a national level in 2024, involving
approximately 22,000 operators", said Schillaci, speaking at the
presentation of the third report drafted by the Italian
Federation of Health and Hospital Agencies (Fiaso) and polling
institute Censis.
Fiaso said on Wednesday that Italy's health agencies have
registered an 5.5% increase in attacks on doctors, nurses and
other health professionals over the last 12 months, continuing
the trend of recent years that has seen assaults on medical
personnel rise.
Each local health authority suffered an average of 116 episodes
of violence in a year, according to Fiaso.
Schillaci said teh majority of attacks in 2024 were reported in
ERs, psychiatric services and hospital wards and that, in most
cases, the attackers were patients, followed by family members
and caregivers.
As in 2023, the great majority of healthcare professionals were
attacked verbally (70%), while 24% were attacked physically,
said the health minister.
In 6% of the cases, the attackers damaged hospital property.
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