Threats and violence in healthcare are becoming more common

This shows the Region of Östergötland's employee survey, which specifically asks about threats and violence, which has not been done before.

"Yes, I think this figure is high, and of course we should do what we can to prevent these types of events going forward and get better numbers," says Rickard Lundin, Regional Security Manager Östergötland.

What is the threat?

- It can be from an individual patient, who does not feel well mentally, who during a visit expresses aggressive words. It may be a person with dementia who cannot know how they behave. It may be people who have been subjected to a criminal act or who have their own criminal past and who carry with them a threat image that is transferred to our staff, who feel threatened to be close to the patient, says Rickard Lundin security manager in the Östergötland region.

10,500 people working in healthcare in the Östergötland region have answered the questionnaire. In addition, seven percent responded that they were exposed to threats and violence, the security department receives more and more inquiries.

- Inquiries to us in the security department are increasing, our operations managers and our employees are demanding our support in a completely different way.

Furthermore, Rickard Lundin says that it is a great challenge to have available care while maintaining safety.

- We review the balance between how accessible we can be, we also need to ensure that we protect our staff at the same time, it is a balancing act, he says.

Specifically, what is it about?

- It can be about having fixed furniture, which cannot be thrown away. It is a matter of reviewing the surveillance of the security staffing at our hospitals. It is about what we can do in collaboration with the police and it is about access, where can the staff come in and where can visitors come in, says Rickard Lundin.

In the case of non-conformity reports on the emergency in Linköping and Norrköping, the figure is fairly constant.

- This is about 30 notifications per year, says Rickard Lundin security manager at Region Östergötland.