Emergency Department doctors subjected to verbal, physical abuse

The vast majority of doctors at the Admission and Emergency Department in St Luke's Hospital have been subjected to verbal or physical abuse over the past year, a study by the Medical Association of Malta shows.

Two doctors - a male and a female - suffered verbal abuse from patients on a daily basis. Over the past 12 months, there were 43 episodes of verbal abuse in the Casualty Department.

Two female doctors reported being subjected to physical abuse in the past two years while three male doctors reported being physically abused in the past decade.

However, none of the respondents required time off following an episode of physical abuse. The MAM questioned 35 doctors out of the 40 working at the department in a study carried out last August and September.

A separate study among 19 doctors working at the Paediatric Admissions and Emergency Department shows that one male doctor was physically assaulted twice in the past year.

Although he reported an episode that took place eight months ago to a superior, the latter did nothing about it, the report says.

Five male and six female paediatricians said they had been harassed, and five men and eight women reported being victims of verbal abuse.

One female paediatrician said she was verbally abused at least once a day.

One male doctor working at the Casualty Department who fell victim to physical abuse said he failed to take action while another two reported the incident to the police. The two females said they contacted a senior member of staff.

Two doctors said nothing happened after they reported the abuse. In one case, however, the aggressor was prosecuted and, in another, the court ordered the aggressor not to approach the doctor.

Only one of the 16 female doctors and one out of the 19 males that took part in the study said they had never been verbally abused.

The vast majority of doctors who suffered verbal abuse - 78.8 per cent - said they had not reported the episode. Five out of the 33 doctors who said they had been verbally abused reported it occasionally and one said he reported it sometimes. Three females said they suffered verbal abuse on a weekly basis, one said this happened between seven and 12 times a year, another seven said it took place between two and six times a year and another three said they suffered verbal abuse once a year.

One of the male doctors who were at the receiving end of verbal abuse said this happened once a week, two said it happened several times a month, three said they were verbally abused between seven and 12 times a year, nine that it took place between two and six times a year and another two suffered verbal abuse once a year.

When contacted, MAM general secretary Martin Balzan said the majority of people were well behaved and respected doctors.

But the abuse was affecting almost all doctors in the department.

Doctors see about 120,000 people a year in casualty.

Dr Balzan stressed the importance of more doctors reporting cases of abuse and also to pressure the authorities to discourage such behaviour by taking appropriate action.

Earlier this year, the British government proposed that anyone who abuses National Health Service staff can be fined up to £1,000 and thrown off the premises.