In Toulon, SOS Médecins will no longer come to a city area after a new attack

Thibaut Hue / Photo credits: RICCARDO MILANI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 08:43, February 9, 2024

In Toulon, in the Var, SOS Médecins announces that it will no longer intervene in a district of the city after the attack on a doctor who was leaving a home consultation. “We feel vulnerable” confides the secretary general of SOS Médecins. 

SOS Doctor sounds the alert. The Federation points out the increasing number of violence in the context of consultations, after a doctor was assaulted on Sunday in a housing estate in Toulon. He was chased in the middle of the night by several people for wanting to take a photo of a trash fire. SOS Médecins denounces violence, most often physical, perpetrated by patients unhappy with treatment or a prescription. The decision was therefore firm: doctors will no longer travel to this district of Toulon until further notice.

This neighborhood had already posed a problem, explains Serge Smadja, the general secretary of SOS Médecins, at the microphone of Europe 1: "It was a place where they had already refused to go for a certain time, they returned there, but with This new aggression makes them make this decision,” he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

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The Federation mentions “three attacks”, including one recorded in Auxerre last December. A doctor was hit by a patient's husband, who was upset by the waiting time for treatment. “When visiting a home, we feel particularly vulnerable because face to face with a patient who becomes violent, it puts us in a difficult situation,” explains Serge Smadja.

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The secretary general of SOS Médecins recommends the installation of video surveillance cameras in their premises and the implementation of portable alert devices. The recruitment of security personnel is also discussed. “It’s sad but the question arises,” he regrets.