Aggressive Patients may be Blacklisted by Emergency Care

Patients aggresive to medics should be put on a special "blacklist" and not be visited by doctors in their home, and if specialists really have to go to be escorted by the police. This idea was launched by the President of the Bulgarian Medical Association Ventzislav Grozev. He explained to Nova TV that the list would also inform emergency doctors about having a problem patient. The organization is launching a study on how the idea is adopted.

Grozev said he was supported by the Ministry of Health, the Bulgarian Red Cross and Ombudsman Maya Manolova. According to him, similar practice has been introduced in other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. He, however, expressed doubts about how such a blacklist would scare the patients accustomed to attacking doctors. Similar doubts were expressed by the chairman of the National Patient Organization Stanimir Hasardzhiev. According to him, a more effective campaign would be "positive" one, as well as working with doctors to be trained on how to act in a collision with aggressive patients. Before FOCUS he also said that serious penalties are needed to reduce the incidence of attacks on medics.

According to Dr Ventsislav Grozev, the medical union chairman for the last year and a half, more than 100 doctors have been attacked in their workplace. For the first half of this year, the cases were 25. The most affected were general practitioners and emergency aid workers. According to the Bulgarian Medical Association, every second doctor was victim of aggression by patients. Most often, this is a verbal one. On Tuesday, the problem of doctor attacks will be discussed at a coordination meeting at the Metropolitan Directorate of the Interior Ministry. The idea is to set up a special...