A doctor who works at a mental health
and drug rehab centre in Cesena ended up in the emergency room
after a 50-year-old patient attacked him, investigative sources
said Friday.
The 50-year-old patient, a homeless man with a drug addition
problem, allegedly hit and punched the doctor after he refused
to immediately hospitalize him or send him to a rehabilitation
hosting facility.
The alleged attacker, who has a police record, also threatened
another health professional on Thursday before the intervention
of Carabinieri police.
The incident reported in Cesena was the latest in a string of
attacks on healthcare workers by patients and relatives across
Italy.
The attacks on medical staff were particularly frequent in
southern Italy, in particular at the Policlino Riuniti Hospital
in the Puglia city of Foggia where a mob of some 20 friends and
family of a young woman who died after surgery attacked doctors
and nurses, severely injuring a surgeon and a female doctor.
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