Aumento de agresiones a médicos en España: 847 casos en 2024
The observer against aggressions of the Organización Médica Colegiada (OMC) recorded a total of 847 violent actions in 2024, setting a new annual record and highlighting that every ten hours a doctor in Spain is attacked.
«We need to avoid this and we need a cultural change. We live in a society where dialogue has clearly been damaged. Insult replaces argument and respect progressively turns into constant tension,» said the president of the medical organization, Tomás Cobo.
Cobo expressed these sentiments during the presentation of the data on Wednesday regarding the «Day of Aggressions against Healthcare Professionals,» which marked the observatory’s anniversary.
In 2024, 847 aggressions were reported among 312,312 colleagues. This number is higher than in 2023 (769) and 2022 (843), which were the highest recorded data since the registry was established in 2010. In total, since the registry began in 2010, 8,108 aggressions have been reported.
Of all the aggressions in 2024, 62.40% were against women and 37.60% against men, reinforcing the trend of recent years where women are the majority of victims of aggressions.
Regarding the locations of the aggressions, 47.7% of cases occurred in primary care settings, representing a four-point increase from 2023.
Additionally, Ceuta had the highest percentage of aggressions in 2024, with 18.62 aggressions per 1,000 colleagues, followed by Extremadura (5.80), Melilla (5.65), and the Canary Islands (5.08). Conversely, the regions with lower percentages were Aragón (1.28), Madrid (1.42), Castilla-La Mancha (1.69), and Asturias (2.37).
In terms of the types of aggressions suffered, nearly half (48%) involved threats and restrictions, with women being the majority (65%). On the other hand, 11% of the total aggressions resulted in physical injuries, with 71% of victims being women and 29% men.
Furthermore, out of all the reported aggressions, 14% resulted in legal action, one percentage point higher than the previous year.
The report prepared by the OMC emphasizes that 8 out of 10 aggressions stem from issues related to healthcare. Among these causes, the primary reason for aggression is dissatisfaction with the medical care received, accounting for 50.9%, albeit slightly lower.
Professional disagreements (17.3%) and billing discrepancies (11.6%), along with issues related to work disability (11.6%), are also common triggers for aggression.
Structural causes of aggression, unrelated to medical care or service issues, continue to rise compared to the previous year. Among these, waiting times followed by system failures (34.1%) are notable factors, accounting for 65.9%.
The data on aggressors in 2024 show that mainly scheduled patients (46.5%) were the primary perpetrators, followed by unscheduled patients (32%) and colleagues (19.8%). Additionally, 52.5% of aggressors were between 40 and 60 years old, 34.4% were under 40, and 13.1% were over 60.
Doctors emphasized that less than half of the reported aggressions were communicated to the authorities (43.5%). Therefore, the OMC stressed the importance of reporting to increase awareness and prevent further incidents.
«It’s possible that this situation occurs because they believe that complaining won’t achieve anything, except expose them in a broader context than we think,» said Cobo.
Furthermore, around 93 professionals sought legal protection through the social protection base of the WTC via the food policy.
FUENTE
