After a year 2020 marked by confinements, the Order of Physicians lists in 2021, 1,009 incidents declared by these health professionals.
A figure, unsurprisingly, up from that of 2020 which had "only" 955 reported incidents, but down from that of 2019 (1,084 incidents).
The reality is undoubtedly much higher, estimates the National Council of the Order of Physicians (Cnom), which estimates that "about 30% of the incidents reported".
As last year, these facts relate more to female doctors (53% against 47% of men).
These incidents have affected health professionals wherever they work, but in the majority of cases, mainly in towns.
In detail, 51% of them took place in the city center, 22% in the suburbs and 21% in rural areas.
Among the most affected regions are Hauts-de-France (with 172 declared incidents) followed by Île-de-France (135) and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes region (119).
General practitioners, the most affected
Another observation is that general practitioners are the most affected by these incidents (61% of incidents reported, while general practitioners represent 43% of the active medical profession).
Other specialties follow further behind with cardiologists (6%), psychiatrists (3%) or even ophthalmologists (2%) and dermatologists (2%).
In the majority of cases, the aggressor remains the patient (54%).
Most of the incidents (70%) are verbal attacks (insults, threats, harassment), the rest being split more or less equally between physical attacks, thefts and vandalism.
The reasons mentioned most often revolve around an unsatisfied request from the patient: “reproach relating to care”, “refusal of a prescription” or even “waiting time deemed excessive”.
32% of victim doctors filed a complaint
In detail, 59 incidents recorded in 2021 were primarily caused by the health crisis, according to the victim doctors: 35 concerned a refusal to comply with health rules and 24 were the result of patients opposed to vaccination.
"It's like what is happening in our society, people have fewer and fewer brakes when they can't get what they want," summarized Dr. Avrane, stating that " the best way to reduce these figures is to lodge a complaint”.
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However, the College of Physicians regrets the few complaints filed by doctors who are victims of attacks.
Only 32% of them took the plunge, a proportion that falls… to 20% among doctors who are victims of verbal abuse.
Above all, more than a third of doctors who were victims of physical attacks did not file a complaint.