Health staff protest violence against colleagues in İzmir

İZMİR

Healthcare workers in the Aegean province of İzmir called for a press conference to protest violence in hospitals after five doctors and two nurses were assaulted by patients in a week.

The last straw for the health staff was when a doctor was assaulted by a patient for rejecting to prescribe medication without due process of regulations.

Health organizations including the İzmir Medical Chamber, the İzmir Family Practitioners’ Association and the Turkish Nurses Association called for a press conference at the Tepecik Education and Research Hospital on July 16.

More than 100 healthcare workers carried banners with “Violence in healthcare must end” and “More than 50 percent of healthcare workers experience violence when at work” written on them, protesting violence in the health sector.

“Security personnel must show up and offer assistance when they are called. This is the weakness we experienced here. We want the authorities to hear us,” İzmir Medical Chamber head Prof. Dr. Funda Barlık Obuz said.

“The arguments we have with patients and their kin on a daily basis have turned into a trend of violence. Some patients’ relatives physically abused me and my colleagues,” said Enis Yiğitarslan, one of the doctors who had been a victim of violence.