France’s medical profession is in a state of shock after the fatal stabbing of a nurse on Monday at a hospital in Reims. It comes as a new report revealed a sharp increase in attacks on health professionals.
The 39-year-old nurse was stabbed inside a cloakroom at the University Hospital of Reims, in north-eastern France.
She succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday morning.
An enquiry into attempted murder has been opened.
The chief suspect, a 59-year-old man with a history of psychiatric problems, is under investigation for attempted murder.
He also stabbed a 56-year-old medical secretary, but her injuries are not life-threatening.
France’s health minister, François Braun, has called for a minute’s silence in hospitals on Wednesday. He said he would organise a committee of unions and health professionals this week “to see what can be done to ensure the security of health workers”.
Government spokesperson Olivier Véran said this kind of violence had “no place” in France.
“She devoted her life to protecting and saving the lives of others, and died in a violent way,” Véran told France Inter public radio on Tuesday.
The nurse’s death has deeply shocked France’s nursing profession.
“We’ve reached a stage where we need to do something, because these acts of aggression are more and more violent,” Daniel Guillerm, president of the National Nursing Federation, told FranceInfo radio.
While a few years ago attacks were mainly verbal, now they were becoming more physical, he said.
Doctors targeted
The nurse's death coincides with the publication of a report revealing violence against doctors in France has never been higher.
The report by the Observatoire pour la securité des medecins, a safety watchdog set up by France's Order of Physicians, found that the number of violent incidents against doctors had increased by 23 percent in 2022.
Doctors declared 1,244 incidents – the highest figure in the last 20 years.
Seven out of the 10 doctors who reported incidents – whether verbal or physical – are GPs. Most are practising in city centres (56 percent), 21 percent are in rural areas and 19 percent in the suburbs.
A third of incidents involved patients who were unhappy with the care they received, while 20 percent related to refusals to prescribe medicine or sick leave.
Deteriorating patient-doctor relations
For Dr Jean-Jacques Avrane, a delegate with the Observatoire, the increase in violence against doctors is part of an increasingly violent society overall.
“It’s impossible to dissociate violence against doctors from the violence in general that we observe in society,” he told RFI.
“There's also a problem with people in uniform, such as firefighters, police, doctors and health workers. What we’re seeing was unthinkable before, but now seems permitted.”
While GPs represent only 40 percent of doctors in France, they account for over 70 percent of the violent incidents reported .
“There’s certainly a problem in the doctor-patient relationship,” Avrane says, highlighting the fact some patients will go online to look for health solutions and request prescriptions the GP won’t provide.
The Covid crisis further eroded trust.
“The recommendations of some medical professionals were called into question during the Covid crisis, over vaccination. And the anti-vax movement has not disappeared,” he says.
“It means we’re in a very negative dynamic.”
Filing complaints
The Order of Physicians says only 31 percent of the incidents reported led to an official complaint.
Avrane, who is also president of the Paris branch of the Order of Physicians, acknowledged it was “complicated for GPs to make an official complaint against a patient that they've been treating, perhaps for years, and with whom they have a relationship of trust”.
Nonetheless, the order is “pushing doctors to file complaints” so that violence is taken seriously. Avrane stresses it has representatives within each department to offer support and even constitute a civil party as part of a lawsuit.
The Health Ministry says it takes such violence seriously, and launched a mission into the safety of health professionals last December.
It’s due to deliver its conclusions in a few weeks.
