A “cowardly” act and an “unleashing” of incomprehensible violence. The Minister Delegate in charge of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, again condemned this Monday morning the attack on a stretcher bearer at the Challans hospital, in Vendée, which occurred on Saturday.
The ambulance driver's state of health "has improved slightly", but the caregiver is still in intensive care, he said on franceinfo. “There is better,” he stressed.
“He was severely attacked. I am thinking of him and his family,” added the minister. The stretcher bearer, named Guy, was violently attacked on Saturday by a person belonging to a group who came to accompany two patients suffering from an electric shock to the emergency room.
🔴 Stretcher bearer attacked in Vendée➡️ "His condition has slightly improved. [...] I would like to express the cowardice of this violence which has been unleashed", declares Frédéric Valletoux, Minister Delegate in charge of Health and Prevention. pic.twitter.com/rRHxqy2tPC
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) April 8, 2024
On Sunday, the minister had already denounced an “odious and cowardly act”. “A hospital is a sanctuary. No violence against healthcare workers can be tolerated,” he said. On Franceinfo, he again castigated this Monday the “cowardice of this violence which has been unleashed”.
“Unacceptable”
“It’s a situation where there was no state of tension at all, we are dealing with a pure case of delinquency,” he insisted. “This outbreak of violence, in an establishment where caregivers are there (…) to take care of the weakest, is unacceptable,” the minister insisted. The Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, Catherine Vautrin, also described this attack as “intolerable”, saying on Sunday on the X network that “this act must be firmly condemned”.
“The video surveillance system allowed investigators to identify the culprit(s) in this affair”, who had not been arrested on Sunday evening, Frédéric Valletoux also indicated.
He assured that the deployment of video surveillance, an objective set out in a hospital security plan presented a few months ago, “is an increasingly true fact in hospitals, particularly in emergency services” .
“Ongoing investigations” to “locate” the attacker
An investigation into “violence against healthcare personnel with ITT of more than 8 days” was opened by the Sables-d’Olonne public prosecutor’s office. The public prosecutor Gwenaëlle Coto indicated to Le Parisien that "it appears from the elements of the investigation that two men accompanied by several members of their family presented themselves at the emergency reception" and "the relative of one injured people committed acts of violence against an ambulance driver.”
“The individual fled with the other members of his family, including the injured. Investigations are still underway to locate the perpetrator of the violence,” continued the magistrate, specifying that “the victim was able to be interviewed yesterday morning”, Sunday.
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Within the hospital, “a psychological support unit for the team” has been set up, announced the director of the Francis de Saint-Hubert center. The assaulted stretcher bearer “is still in shock,” he said on Sunday. “He doesn’t understand why he received this blow. It fell on him. There is no explanation for why he was targeted. » The hospital filed a complaint and became a civil party.