• Forensic Science Hair, 'snitch' on chemical submission

The Common Protocol of the National Health System for health action against sexual violence 2023 is one of the items on the agenda of the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the NHS, which is being held this Thursday, December 21.

The document, to which this newspaper has had access, establishes "common criteria for standardised and homogeneous professional action for the National Health System as a whole, with respect to the detection, assessment and intervention in cases of sexual violence (past or recent) in adult women, children and/or adolescents, including the cases of daughters and sons of women who suffer or have suffered violence in the context of their partner or ex-partner".

It updates the previous protocol of 2012 and sets out the path to be followed by the autonomous communities in the preparation of guides to further detail these interventions. In the document, according to regional sources who have participated in its preparation, special emphasis has been placed on maintaining a good chain of custody in the collection of biological samples and evidence of the possible crime to be used for legal purposes; in the victim's consent to the examination by health professionals and in the coordination between hospital, forensic and primary care teams. In addition, it refers to chemical submission, which in recent years has been more present in cases of sexual assault.

FORENSIC INTERVENTION WITHOUT PRIOR COMPLAINT

"Given the importance of the forensic medical examination, when the victim of acute or recent sexual violence (less than 7-10 days old) goes to a health centre to receive medical assistance, the centre must contact the on-call court and request the intervention of the forensic doctor with prior judicial authorization. This intervention shall be carried out without delay and shall not be conditional on a prior complaint [in the original text of the protocol this phrase is capitalized and underlined], which may or may not be lodged subsequently. In other words, forensic medical intervention must be as early as possible andindependent of the formulation of a complaint by the person attacked," the document states.

"In order to secure the evidence, the forensic doctor will intervene jointly with the health service specialist, informing the victim of the suitability of the medico-legal examination and the collection of samples, obtaining his/her consent to it. This intervention will be carried out without delay." In the case of minors and people with disabilities, the protocol states that "written consent for forensic examination" must be requested.

Regarding detection, the document recalls the duty of the health professional to report suspected violence against a patient and, especially, when the perpetrator of violence is someone from the victim's family environment.

The annexes to the protocol contain the regulations that cover the development of the guideline, the informed consent document for the collection of samples, models of the chain of custody to send to the Institutes of Legal and Forensic Medicine, and models of injury reports and medical reports.

The more than 150 pages of the protocol are the result of the joint work of technicians from all the autonomous communities represented in the Interterritorial Council. Now, the Interterritorial only has to definitively ratify the protocol, which they have been working on since 2019, when the first draft appeared, but "which has been delayed in time for political reasons", regional sources confess.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE PROTOCOL

  • Guarantee coordinated action with the forensic doctors of the Institutes of Legal and Forensic Medicine (IMLCF) and comprehensive care for victims of sexual violence (recent and past).
  • Raise awareness and train health personnel in the National Health System (SNS) on the seriousness of sexual violence.
  • Update the knowledge based on the experience and scientific evidence of recent years, providing health personnel with common tools for decision-making and comprehensive, humanized and quality health intervention.
  • Promote the empowerment and training of those who have suffered or are suffering sexual violence, requiring recognition of their situation, the search for the best scientific, health, legal and social interventions that allow the recovery of their health in the best possible conditions.
  • To offer a protocol with common guidelines for useful and practical action regarding the reception of the victim of sexual violence in the health service.
  • Contribute with its implementation to improve health research on sexual violence.
  • Promote greater awareness among all health professionals about specific aspects of sexual violence that need to be taken into account in health care with people in contexts of greater vulnerability
  • Health
  • Violence