Strict penalties will be imposed from May 1st to those who use violence against doctors, nurses and rescuers of the EKAB as well as against patients in hospitals, as the provisions of the new Penal Code are implemented.

“Those who use violence against healthcare workers are most likely to be sent to prison,” pointed out the Minister of Justice Giorgos Floridis, in the context of an event organized by the Medical Association of Thessaloniki, on the occasion of today’s Pan-European Awareness Day against violence against healthcare workers.

“In the government, we are particularly happy because within the framework of the new Criminal Code, which will be in force from May 1st, we have finally established a very clear and specific provision, which protects doctors, nurses, rescuers of the EMS and patients in hospitals, when they exercise their function or are treated. We believe that this provision will protect all those who work hard in hospitals, especially on duty days, from verbal attacks or any other kind of physical violence, and will effectively protect them, because the prescribed penalties are no joke. And this is a message that we want everyone to get,” noted Mr. Floridis.

Pointing out that those who engage in violence will face jail terms, the Justice Minister added: “Therefore, let all those who have it in their minds to commit such acts think very hard. They have to think about it a lot because in hospitals there has to be order, there has to be calm, because doctors, nurses, paramedics give their best and therefore these people have to feel safe when they do their job. They cannot be exposed to acts of violence, whether verbal or physical. That’s why I think what we did in the Criminal Code is very important.”

During the event there was tension as doctors and health workers entered the hall holding banners, shouting slogans against the degradation of the health system and expressing their opposition to the afternoon surgeries.

The president of the Panhellenic Medical Association Athanasios Hexadaktilos noted that the Pan-European Awareness Day against violence against healthcare workers was established in Europe three years ago. “It is a day that signals that the phenomenon of violence against doctors, nurses and everyone who collaborates in hospitals has no place. It must be suppressed before it swells and reaches the dimensions it has in other parts of the planet, for one and main reason: violence against the medical coat is essentially violence against the patients, because the man who operates under any threat or fear performs less from what his powers and knowledge allow him. And this is a huge injustice for the patients in the first place. The recent legislation gives us great satisfaction, it is in the right direction. Everyone should know that inside the hospital, the concept of violence simply does not exist. Regardless of the reason, quite simply, violence is not understood. Our culture does not allow it, our European culture does not allow it,” added Mr. Hexadaktylos.

The president of the Medical Association of Thessaloniki, Nikos Nitsas, for his part, pointed out that everyone’s goal is to reduce incidents of violence to zero. “The doctors, the nurses, the staff are working under burnout conditions, they are working under understaffed conditions. Of course, citizens in some cases suffer because of the weaknesses of the health system, but these should not lead to incidents of violence against doctors, nurses, and health personnel. Conditions in hospitals must be improved, recruitment in hospitals must be done in order to serve the citizen better, but everyone must also know that the new regime of the penal code prescribes very severe penalties and we would like to thank the minister and the government for standing next to us in this request of ours, to make this offense idiom”, said Mr. Nitsas.