Popović Samardžić: The government does not protect doctors from beatings

Montenegro has no wise politicians and is not building a system or institutions that will prevent attacks on healthcare workers.

This was assessed by the president of the Union of Medical Doctors (SDM), Milena Popović Samardžić, regarding the increasingly frequent verbal and physical attacks on employees in the health sector.

"The union of medical doctors has been monitoring and studying attacks on doctors in the workplace for years. We have been conducting persistent dialogues with several governments so that the criminal code more precisely establishes the responsibility and punishment of such an act, which puts at risk all patients who are left without health care due to the doctor's injury. And when we finally managed to define that criminal offense and obtain its application in practice, the Government decided to abolish it. And now, after so many appeals to correct the mistake made, the same government is advocating the definition of a criminal offense for an attack on doctors. Everything that we, as the civil sector, manage to build, the political structures dismantle in five days, and we find out about it through the newspapers," Popović Samardžić told "Vijesta".

She believes that in Montenegro we currently have a collapse of the legal order and a complete lack of institutions, and that there are no universal rules that apply to everyone, and there are no sanctions for the bad, rewards for the good, which is why citizens become disoriented and begin to implement some personal justice .

During the last week, two attacks on healthcare workers were recorded. On the same day, a security worker of the Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG) was physically attacked and a psychiatrist from the Pljeval Health Center was wounded with a knife.

"This is not an isolated incident, this happens to doctors, health workers, security guards, teachers, teachers, everyone who works or protects the social good, as our colleague did," said Popović Samardžić.

She pointed out that the attitude of politicians towards citizens and the state is best reflected through such problems.

"How much attention did they pay to solving problems that directly affect the quality of life of citizens, the quality of services provided by this country, and how much to counting those who speak the Serbian or Montenegrin language? It is not difficult to answer this question. The characteristic of the state should be the organization of its institutions. The only things that are organized in Montenegro are crime and political parties. We have legitimized ignorance and incompetence in the highest state positions, and there is less and less shame in ignorance," said Popović Samardžić.

According to the research of the Ministry of Health, which was conducted this year, as many as 11 percent of medical workers were exposed to physical attacks during six months. More than 70 percent of employees were verbally attacked.

The department's internal research showed that among doctors and medical staff in Montenegro, 79 percent of doctors in health centers experienced verbal attacks, as well as 95 percent of doctors at the Institute for Emergency Medical Assistance.

Six percent of selected doctors experienced physical assault at the workplace, as well as seven percent of nurses and technicians in health center clinics.

Due to increasingly frequent attacks on employees, the Institute for Emergency Medical Assistance, with the support of the Ministry of Health, the Health Insurance Fund and the Police Administration, introduced a system of physical and technical security of facilities throughout the country at the beginning of this month.

The Institute explained that the system works according to the principle that in the event of a physical attack on a person using emergency medical services or when the person possesses a weapon or tool suitable for inflicting physical injuries, the employee presses a button located at a specific location in each HMP facility.

"By pressing the button, the monitoring system of the video-surveillance agency in the security of persons and property is alarmed, which further evaluates it by looking at the unit's video cameras. After that, an employee in the unit is contacted at a special number. After the conversation, the security service calls the police, who come to the scene, if necessary," the Institute pointed out.

Ilhan Tursumović, a neuropsychiatrist at the Pljeval Health Center, is recovering from the injuries he sustained at his workplace last week, when a sixty-five-year-old patient wounded him with a knife.

Saša Grbović, director of the general hospital in Pljevlja where Tursumović was treated, told "Vijesta" that the violent event disturbed all healthcare workers and the entire Pljevlja public, warning of the extremely unfavorable and unprotected position of healthcare workers. He pointed out that this case is not an isolated one, but a chronic social problem and that he hopes that it will be solved soon.