Sunday, March 14, 2010

Relatively safe hospital

I recall many horror stories about the abuse that staff at the Royal Hospital in Liverpool faced particularly in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings. To me it beggars belief that people would be aggressive towards workers in the caring professions but there you go. There is just no accounting for what some will do especially when they are fuelled up on drink or drugs.

By comparison, the hospital in Torrevieja seems to have faired a lot better. In 3 years, they have only brought 24 cases to court against people whose behaviour was deemed aggressive and none of them were considered serious, 80% were verbal involving threats and humiliation.

The staff are trained to back off and not provoke abuse but if they feel it is necessary, call a security guard of which there are four along with one in the Centro de Salud La Loma and another in the Unidad de Conductas Adictivas.

Let us hope that the incidence of this type of behaviour does not increase so that our hospitals remain safe places for both patients and staff.

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