The Minister for the Interior, Jan Jambon (New Flemish Alliance) wishes to address the problem of attacks on doctors.
In the weeks to come, he will send a circular to all of Belgium’s local police zones.
The aim is to raise awareness amongst police officers. This is to be achieved by identifying potential problems, and working directly with both the courts and the medical sector.
Attacks against doctors have often occurred in selected neighbourhoods. As alluded to earlier, the Minister wishes to use this circular to raise police awareness of the problem.
Jan Jambon's spokesman, Olivier Van Raemdonck, insisted that the police must identify the problem within a given region and, if necessary, resolve it.
A survey in Le Journal du médecin (a Belgian publication for the medical profession), indicates that in excess of a quarter of the country's medical practitioners (28%) have been victims of physical violence over the last ten years.
Jambon’s figures indicate that in the first quarter of 2016, some 48 health professionals suffered such attacks.
At the end of 2015, an Ingelmunster doctor was killed by an aggressive patient. During the same period, a Brussels G.P. was also seriously assaulted.
The Brussels Times
