New attack on emergency workers in Scandiano, Fiorentini: “These incidents are disturbing and represent a growing phenomenon that we are addressing with special training.”

On January 7, a new episode of violence against healthcare workers occurred in Scandiano (RE), specifically targeting the crew of an ambulance and a nursing car dispatched for an emergency by the Casalgrande (RE) Public Assistance Service. Giuseppe Macaluso, President of Pubblica Assistenza – Emilia Ambulanze in Casalgrande, who is also a councilor for Anpas Emilia-Romagna, recounts what happened: “We were called to intervene in a situation where a man needed assistance: his partner immediately became agitated, but the Carabinieri were also present, so the situation seemed manageable. Once the man had been loaded into the ambulance and the police had left, the woman began hitting the vehicle, opening and closing the doors, and eventually assaulting one of our volunteers, trapping her hand in the door and fracturing her finger, punching the nurse in the face, and hitting the driver, until the Carabinieri returned and calmed the situation. In the past, I have witnessed attitudes of rejection towards those called upon to intervene in tense situations to provide assistance, but they had never escalated into open violence as they did this time. I would like to encourage and congratulate the crew who had the composure not to react, because in these situations that is the correct way to behave. I also thank them because they all told me that they want to return to work as soon as possible, despite their injuries: the volunteer who suffered the fracture was supposed to start a new job in the next few days and will now be forced to wait. What happened is certainly a further warning sign, highlighting what is now a widespread emergency for us operators, which we must address, and we are trying to do so with Anpas Emilia-Romagna.
The President of Anpas Emilia-Romagna, Iacopo Fiorentini, adds: “Unfortunately, we have noticed that situations of this kind have become more frequent, even though it is certainly difficult to explain the hostility towards those who work every day with the sole aim of helping those in need of rescue and assistance, and who are met with angry and aggressive reactions. For the associations that are part of the Anpas network (109 in all the provinces of Emilia-Romagna), we have set up special training activities to enable operators to deal with these situations in the best possible way, but it is certainly also necessary to intervene in a broader sense to make people understand, or rather remind them, that our intervention is always and only aimed at helping them.”