The Central Sindical Independiente y de Funcionarios (CSIF) union, which represents healthcare workers, has written to the Valencian Ministry of Health to ask for an “urgent” discussion in the face of “the considerable increase in daily aggressions and insults against professionals in the field of Primary Care”. The union proposes measures such as security guards in health centres and awareness campaigns.
The CSIF requests in the letter “urgent information on the actions that are being carried out to identify risks, prevent aggression and insults and guarantee the safety of professionals in their jobs.” The union insists that these measures “must be a priority objective” of the Conselleria de Sanitat’s occupational risk prevention policy.
The union, in its letter, warns of “the psychosocial risks, or conditions present in the work environment that have the capacity to affect the development of work and people’s health.”
In this sense, it warns of workloads and care pressure and of tension and stress at work. In the document they warn that these psychosocial factors “have negative effects on health and also affect the operation of the company.”
CSIF, given the current situation of “considerable increase in daily attacks and insults”, requests the urgent approval of the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of professionals in health centres. Among them, they propose “providing security guards to avoid situations that are taking place.”
The union, in the same document addressed to the Ministry, proposes “to start a user awareness campaign to combat aggression and insults to those who serve them.” In this sense, it provides the motto ‘take care of those who take care of you’ to reflect the need for respect and care towards Valencian health professionals.
CSIF also requests the creation of technical commissions for the management of occupational risk prevention that will carry out its monitoring and evaluation.
It calls for psychosocial risk assessments in all health centres with the intention of identifying risk factors, choosing the methodology and research techniques to apply, planning and carrying out field work, analysis of results and preparation of a report, implementation of an intervention program and monitoring of the measures adopted.
