Healthcare organizations are working together against patient aggression

Healthcare organizations will join forces to address patient harassment and intimidation. Last summer it turned out NOS search and the pharmacist organization KNMP that assaults in pharmacies often occur to an alarming degree. Primary care colleagues acknowledge the problem.

The professional associations of midwives (KNOV), dentists (KNMT), physiotherapists (KNGF) and general practitioners (LHV) are joining forces with pharmacists to look into ways to reduce aggression in health care with the Ministry of Health. By working together, KNMP President Aris Prins hopes “that we as organizations show that we are all in solidarity in healthcare. If you touch one of us, you touch us all.”

According to Prins, the aggression is the result of the lack of clarity between the patient and the shortage of medicines. This lack it has been a problem for many years. “It’s part of our profession to provide help, but in recent years, patients’ first questions have been whether a medicine is reimbursed and whether the medicine is available,” says Prins. “We as caregivers have become accustomed to aggression. It has become more or less part of our profession, while it is not what we were trained for.”

According to Prins, it is important that the government, health insurance companies and health professionals “communicate clearly” with patients about their health policy. This way the patient knows where she is. “And that healthcare professionals are no longer the ones always bringing the bad news.”

In the Zorgvisie magazine, Hans de Vries, president of the professional association of dentists, says that “a social change is taking place in which people express their aggression more easily”. He cites the example of a dentist threatened with a knife. “It scares employees, because it can happen to them too. Some leave our industry because of this aggression.”

It emerged last month that the House of Representatives supports plans to eventually unlock more funding for research into the nature and extent of the assault in the health sector. MPs Jacqueline van den Hil of the VVD and Attje Kuiken of the PvdA support the aid organisations. “Reducing aggression in healthcare affects everyone,” says Kuiken in Zorgvisie magazine. From left to right. We take on this role.”

Even the professional associations themselves say they take responsibility. “For example, dentists inform their patients in advance of expected costs, to avoid arguments or worse. They also work to make the work environment safer during emergency services and on weekends,” writes Zorgvisie.