A crescendo of "brutal attacks, in recent weeks, against the crews of the Territorial Emergency System 118. This was denounced by the national president of SIS 118 Mario Balzanelli, who notes that unfortunately there is a lack of precise statistics and announces that a special section will be created on the Company's website where the violence suffered will be able to be reported from all over Italy "in order to have effective reporting". Another factor, he reports to ANSA, is the fact that "the attackers do not always file official complaints, even though this is required by law", and the same anti-aggression law of 2020 "has not improved the situation".
Balzanelli, also announcing a major awareness campaign, underlines how 118 operators represent the category of health workers "most victims of violence, but despite this we are not involved in discussion tables on such an emergency".
Among the latest cases of violent news, that of Sunday 3 March in Foggia: "two 118 operators, a driver-rescuer and a nurse were attacked - he explains - forced to lock themselves in the ambulance, call the Carabinieri and flee, with a car trying to ram the speeding emergency vehicle".
On the same day, in the Caserta area, in a SET 118 station in Maddaloni, a nurse "is grabbed by the throat, thrown against the shutter and heavily insulted. The nurse and driver-rescuer are forced to lock themselves in the ambulance and call the Carabinieri".
And again: on Friday 8 March, in Tissi, Sardinia, a patient bites the driver-rescuer's calf, slaps one rescuer and gives another rescuer a strong kick in the chest.
Saturday 9 March in Pescara: a nurse and a SET 118 driver-rescuer are kicked, punched and slapped by the patient, his son and a friend of the latter.
"We have been denouncing this absurdity forcefully and promptly, for years - declares Balzanelli - we are forced to take note that our indignation and complaints, alone, do not produce any results. Although in 2020 the legislator passed law 113 of 14 August 'Provisions on the matter of safety for operators of health and socio-health professions in the exercise of their functions, in which it is regulated that injuries caused to personnel carrying out a health or socio-health profession constitute a special aggravating circumstance which increases the penalties, almost 4 years after this law was approved, in concrete terms, it has not had any positive effect on the reduction of attacks on healthcare workers, and attacks on Territorial Emergency System 118 personnel have actually increased significantly".
It is necessary, Balzanelli points out, "a national legislative reform that significantly strengthens the 118 System, but we now believe it is very urgent to activate shortly, like the Italian Society of the 118 System - he concludes - an awareness campaign with clear and strong information content aimed at counteracting, through the objective of encouraging a more adequate awareness of all national citizens, the attacks on our operators".
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