Two Men Arrested After Threatening To Kill A Doctor During Treatment At A Malaga Hospital

TWO men threatened to kill a doctor in the emergency room of Malaga’s Regional University Hospital on Thursday, August 17.

According to a report from the Málaga Medical Union (SMM) – which denounced the incident this Saturday 19 – the traumatic incident occurred after a patient, accompanied by another man, went to the facility asking for treatment as the result of suffering a haemorrhage when punching some glass.

A doctor attended the man and: ‘did not delay the assistance, immediately passing him to the treatment room to stop the bleeding and start an imminent reconstruction and treatment’, they explained, according to malagahoy.es.

However, a problem arose when his companion demanded to be present while his friend was being treated. The doctor told him that he had to remain in the waiting room, “as stipulated”.

‘The refusal did not convince him and he made several death threats to the doctor’, continued the SMM statement. As a result: ‘the voices emitted by the companion in the corridor alerted the patient who was being treated, who got up in the middle of the treatment to join the other outside in his expletives and threats’.

The men were subsequently arrested

The SMM pointed out that police officers who were present in the observation area of ​​the hospital guarding a person detained for other reasons proceeded to arrest both people after the patient’s treatment was completed, despite new threats and duress.

A problem then arose outside the hospital, where, according to the union, a large group of friends of the two men attempted to prevent their arrest, resulting in the officers having to call for reinforcements.

Both detainees were brought before the courts and the doctor gave a statement on Friday morning, pending the decision of the magistrate on duty, the SMM noted.

This was the fifth such incident in a week

Thursday’s attack was the fifth such incident in the city of Malaga in the last week, the Málaga Medical Union pointed out. ‘What type of event has to occur against an employee of the Andalucian public health system for the authorities to face this untenable situation forcefully and take the measures that must be adopted’, they questioned.

The union also suggested that those responsible for security should analyse possible improvements in this area and immediately begin to apply strong administrative sanctions, in addition to judicial ones.

A rally has been called by the SMM for 11 am on Tuesday 22, in coordination with the hospital management. It will be held at the entrance to the emergency department, where the facts will be denounced and support shown for the doctor.

A pregnant doctor was attacked

Just a few days ago, both the Medical Union and the Malaga College of Physicians denounced the attacks suffered by a pregnant doctor on two consecutive days.

These events occurred on Sunday 13 and Monday 14, in the Emergency Department of the Clinical Hospital. On the first of those dates the doctor received threats from a patient, and the next day one of the relatives of another patient pushed her and threw her to the ground.

On this occasion, the incident occurred when the relative: ‘Tired of waiting in the emergency room, entered a doctor’s office without permission, to whom he addressed himself with clearly aggressive behaviour. After threatening him with his hand raised and yelling at him, a colleague of the doctor – 20 weeks pregnant – notified the security personnel’.

The security guard was otherwise occupied

Apparently, at that moment, the guard was occupied attending to an altercation provoked by six other relatives of the same patient: ‘who had entered the centre without authorisation, shouting and refusing to leave the emergency room’.

Taking advantage of this chaos, the alleged attacker went to the pregnant doctor who had called security minutes earlier and pushed her.

According to the Medical Association: ‘he hit her hard in the chest with both arms, throwing her backwards until she was displaced more than a metre’.

Another colleague held her down, and then the individual tried to punch her. It was the first doctor she had shouted at who prevented him from hitting her a second time by: ‘pinning him down from behind’.

She then: ‘moved and tried to get away by punching and kicking him until security personnel came to her aid’, they said in a statement.

There have been 23 attacks on doctors so far in 2023

Pedro Navarro, the president of the Malaga College of Physicians assured that: ‘it has been a difficult summer and security must be reinforced in health centres. Doctors must go to their workplace feeling calm and safe’.

He insisted on a zero-tolerance policy being implemented against attacks on health workers and expressed his concern about the increase in attacks this year.

With this latest attack, there have already been 23 attacks on doctors recorded in Malaga so far this year. That is the same number that occurred throughout all of 2022 with four and a half months still to go before the end of this year.