Last year, the National Police carried out more than 9,000 police actions related to attacks on professionals in the health sector, both in health centers and in home care, which resulted in 115 arrests. In 2023, a total of 315 complaints were collected (54% for verbal attacks and 46% for physical attacks) and more than 11,000 health professionals have been trained throughout the national territory.
The General Commissioner of Citizen Security, Juan Carlos Castro Estévez; accompanied by the National Health Police Interlocutor, Manuel Yanguas Menéndez, they met yesterday with representatives of the College Organizations of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine and Social Work; and before the Security Directors of the health sector, with whom they have analyzed the statistical data of the complaints filed by health professionals, within the scope of action of the National Police, during 2023.
Since 2017, the year in which Instruction 3/2017 of the Secretary of State for Security was launched, on police measures to be adopted against attacks on health professionals, training has been given to more than 27,000 professionals in the health sector (11,000 only last year) on police and procedural aspects to act in the event of an attack in the exercise of their duties, as well as communication tools to prevent possible violent situations or those that escalate.
During the past year, a total of 315 complaints have been registered, 54% for verbal attacks and 46% for physical attacks, with Málaga with 34, Alicante with 33 and Madrid with 24 being the provinces with the highest number of reported attacks.
Over the course of last year, citizen security agents carried out 9,000 police actions in the health sector, 6,100 of them occurring during home health care and the rest in health centers. The profile of the victims of the attacks corresponds to 60% women, with an age range between 36 and 55 years.
Regarding when these attacks occurred, the data analyzed by the National Police have confirmed that March was the month in which the most incidents occurred and that Mondays and Wednesdays were the days of the week with the highest incidence, concentrating attacks in the time slot between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The total number of detainees during 2023 due to the different incidents that occurred in the health sector amounts to 115 people.
The analysis of the profile of the aggressors shows that 66% are men between the ages of 36 and 55, who show a profile devoid of mental pathologies and that one in four are relatives or companions of the patients who are found. in consultation.
The National Police maintained and reinforced collaboration with the security departments of the health sector, having increased the number of hospitals that have a security department, both in the private and public spheres, creating a total of 45 departments today. .
In 2023, new lines of action were carried out. On the one hand, the consolidation of training projects with the General Nursing Council, creating a preventive training course against attacks for all nurses in Spain. Collaboration has also begun with the General Councils of Veterinary Medicine and Physiotherapy, with some training actions such as the online course that was taught for the prevention of attacks on veterinarians.
The breakdown of complaints from the health sector by province shows that Andalusia is the community where the most cases were registered, with 102 incidents: Almería (3), Cádiz (15), Córdoba (5), Granada (10), Huelva (3) , Jaén (3), Málaga (44) and Seville (19).
In Aragon, a total of six complaints were received from the health sector, all of them having been registered in the province of Zaragoza. In Asturias, 14 complaints were recorded.
In the Balearic Islands, for their part, seven criminal acts related to the health sector were recorded. In the Canary Islands, 38 complaints of assault were recorded, of which 24 were in Las Palmas and four in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In Cantabria, five complaints related to attacks in the sector were reported. The only one that did not register any is La Rioja.