There has been a sharp increase in attacks against Belgium's medical workers, with a total of 71 assault reports having been received by the Belgian Order of Physicians this year alone, already surpassing the total for 2022.
The number of attacks against medical staff is more likely to be much higher. Physicians believe that these figures are only "the tip of the iceberg," with Dr Roland Kerzmann telling Le Soir "that four in five assaults go unreported."
Conducted in 2019, out of the 4,000 queried doctors, 37% reported that they had been assaulted. Once applied to the total number of doctors in Belgium, the number of attacks faced by medical staff would be closer to 13,500.
The VUB’s research also showed the type of assault faced by doctors, 80% of which were verbal, 17% physical and 3% were sexual. Female medics were more often targeted than their male colleagues.
Faced with these figures, authorities need to respond with adequate security measures for a sector that has been sounding the alarm over violence at work for some time.
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Over the past seven years, the Belgian Order of Physicians has been notified 434 times about attacks committed against the country’s doctors. The Médecins en difficulté non-profit organisation was also set up in 2016 to demand greater protection for medical staff.
The Belgian Government has attempted to crack down on these violent acts by imposing five-year prison sentences for those found guilty of assaulting doctors.
However, it remains to be seen whether this will be enough, with calls for the government to tackle the structural causes of violence. The Walloon GP Aurore Dony, for example, wants to see "people's stress" addressed, which she believes "is palpable" and "linked to the pandemic and general crisis."
