Violence against emergency workers is increasing: hospital overcrowding is a major contributor

Seventy-five percent of workers in emergency medical departments and services have witnessed violence in the past year, according to a survey of over 1,300 health professionals in 81 countries worldwide.

In a special session at the European Emergency Medicine Congress today (Friday), Luis Garcia Castrillo, a professor in emergency medicine, now retired, at the Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, Spain, said that while patients and their friends or relatives were the main perpetrators, often because of alcohol or drug consumption, overcrowding in emergency medical departments was an equally important contributor to the violence.

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