It was 9am one Saturday morning and the Emergency Department of Motril’s Santa Ana Hospital was already filling up – some people had been there hours, others were just arriving. One patient, however, decided that her test results were taking too long…

So, without a word she stood up and started to push the female doctor that had carried out the test, shaking her violently.

Fortunately, it didn’t degenerate further, but this is just one more case of violence against hospital staff – some people appear to think that because healthcare is free in Spain, they are able to treat hospital staff as they wish.

Anyway, the following week all the Santa Ana staff demonstrated outside the building in a protest against this inexcusable behavior. They asked the patients to understand their position.

A spokesman for the workers union to which the hospital staff belong said, “It’s necessary to educate the patients, making them aware that medical staff are here to help them, but lamentably, on many occasions, we don’t feel that we are appreciated.”

He went on to point out that it is not the fault of doctors and nurses when attention to patients is delayed or setbacks occur in the heat of events in an Emergency Department.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)