Legal Response of Physicians Towards Workplace Violence during COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Workplace violence (WPV) is defined by World Medical Association as "an international emergency that undermines the very foundations of health systems and impacts critically on patient's health". The physicians are specifically vulnerable for such these acts from patients or even their relatives. WPV has detrimental effects on both health professionals and the quality of health care services administered. Aim: to highlight the problem of assault against doctors and their legal response towards it, generally in medical practice and specifically during COVID 19 pandemic. Subjects and methods:A cross sectional study was done through anonymous self-structured internet-based questionnaire survey on 300 physicians. It included different data as regards sociodemographic data, occurrence of bullying, type of assault and response of the physician towards such assault. Results: About 55% of responders claimed previous exposure to verbal or physical violence, nearly 19% faced verbal violence and 14% faced physical violence, about 15% notified head of the department while only 9.7% notified police. Almost 80% of the responders were not satisfied by actions taken after notification, and 23% were exposed to bullying due to working during COVID era. All responders (100%) believe that media affect how people deal with physicians. Conclusion:Workplace violence against doctors is escalating vigorously.Under-reporting and lack of security support are the main issues in solving this catastrophic health system problem.

Workplace violence at emergency departments, Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt

“…No respondents filed a formal report against the perpetrator. Similar findings were reported by previous studies that found most of healthcare professionals in Egypt do not take action against perpetrators of violent incidents [ 10 , 11 , 14 ]. Underreporting of WPV is common in healthcare settings worldwide due to several factors including lack of support from supervisors and coworkers, fear of blame or reprisal [ 27 , 28 ], absence of physical injury, time-consuming procedures for incident reporting [ 27 ], and the belief that reporting will not result in positive changes [ 27 , 29 ].…”

“…The incidence of violence in emergency rooms has been a recurrent problem in Egypt due to lack of security measures at hospitals and the absence of legislation for violence against healthcare professionals. Further, the incidence of WPV reportedly increased during the COVID 19 pandemic [9,10]. The present study found verbal violence was the most frequent type of violence against physicians and nurses working in the EDs of ASUH, followed by sexual and physical violence.…”

“…The incidence of violence in emergency rooms has been a recurrent problem in Egypt due to lack of security measures at hospitals and the absence of legislation for violence against healthcare professionals. Further, the incidence of WPV reportedly increased during the COVID 19 pandemic [ 9 , 10 ].…”

“…This statement was shocking to doctors and the syndicate condemned the government and warned the statement would increase violence against doctors [ 33 ]. Salem et al (2022) investigated violence against doctors during the COVID 19 pandemic in Egypt and found all participating physicians (100%) believed that the media has a major role in increasing public anger against doctors and exposure of healthcare workers to violence [ 10 ].…”

Medicolegal analysis of physical violence toward physicians in Egypt

“…The questionnaire was designed to investigate physical violence against physicians in Egypt from a medicolegal perspective, and it was formulated following a comprehensive review of the literature in this context 4 , 22 – 25 , 30 . Google form was used to formulate the survey that was electronically distributed to the participants.…”