Nursing up: "We ask Meloni to bring the military to the hospitals"

His only fault was to invite the relatives of the patients, who were literally agitated, to calm down, and above all to abandon the emergency room spaces, to allow the presence of only the medical personnel.

In response, a young nurse from San Leonardo di Castellammare di Stabia she was first pulled, then grabbed by the hair, then even hit with a very violent punch in the face, resulting in swelling on her face and even a broken tooth.

We are facing one of the most brutal and shameful attacks recorded in Italian hospitals in recent times, but above all truly inexplicable, the result of an anger that grows every day like a cancer with its metastases, becoming the clear example of a bad culture that has taken root in the brains of certain citizens, who vent their discontent, linked to the inconveniences of health facilities, against our nurses who have become the number one enemy.

In the eyes of the citizens, we have become responsible for the disorganization and delays, the scapegoat against which to vent anxieties and fears.

Thus Antonio De Palma, National President of Nursing Up.

«We are facing a real war zone, we are facing episodes of aggression that, compared to the past, have become more frequent and brutal, and that above all target, in a cowardly way to say the least, women, our nurses, who obviously have greater difficulty in defending themselves.

We are really tired of what is happening in Italian hospitals and we want to denounce first of all, in strong tones, continues De Palma, the inability of politics, at various levels, to implement drastic measures that could be able to stem the dramatic phenomenon.

It is clear that the laws that exist are of little use. The facts speak for themselves.

The situation, especially in health facilities in regions like Campania, has become unsustainable. Our nurses are afraid, they literally live in terror.

As a national nurses union, we immediately ask for the intervention of the army in institutions such as ASL Napoli 1 and ASL Napoli 3, or bomb-proof hospitals such as San Camillo and Sant'Andrea in Rome. There is no other solution to defend healthcare personnel.

We ask our Prime Minister Meloni, as happened for the “Safe Roads” project, to bring our military inside the hospitals. We see no other possible solution. We are at a point of no return. The presence of the army is needed immediately!

We also want to reflect on the fact that, in this Wild West climate, where patients and their relatives have turned into vigilantes and where it seems that there is a price on our nurses, the kind used to be placed on the heads of the worst criminals, healthcare companies must fully assume their responsibilities.

In fact, it is not enough for the latter to constitute themselves as civil parties. In our opinion, it is not enough. In fact, we would like to point out that healthcare companies, pursuant to Article 2087 of the Civil Code, are responsible, as employers, for the physical and psychological safety of their employees.

It is too convenient, then, to simply join the civil action and play the role of the victims when our nurses are the ones who are punched in the face.

Wherever the conditions exist, our territorial delegations are ready to support our members, victims of brutal attacks, in undertaking courageous and necessary legal battles where health companies could be sued for damages.

More than ever, the time has come to defend ourselves, since those who should protect our safety only find time for empty proclamations and promises, while inside hospitals, in crowded emergency rooms, our professionals walk as if on a field full of anti-personnel mines.

In short, here we are talking about bombs ready to explode at any moment, and here a young woman, who was only guilty of calling on citizens to respect the rules, finds herself with a swollen face, a missing tooth and an unsustainable level of stress linked to the fear of returning to work again, in what is a real daily Wild West", concludes De Palma.