Alex Trelinski
A MURCIA region doctor was racially abused and assaulted during a house visit which she has reported to the Guardia Civil’s Hate Crimes Unit.
The black female medic, 39, was born in the Dominican Republic and was on duty at the Calasparra Health Centre on April 7 when she and an ambulance team responded to an emergency call.
The doctor, who is remaining anonymous, told the La Verdad newspaper: “The nurse, the ambulance driver and I entered the house, and the patient’s husband first asked us: where is the doctor?”
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“When my nurse told him that I was the doctor, he yelled at me: that f—–g n—-r? I was shocked.”
Despite the racist barrage from the man in his early seventies, the team tried to treat his wife, but the verbal onslaught continued.
The GP said: “He was shouting more and more, raising his voice, and I couldn’t even answer: it was as if I were watching a movie.”
“My companion asking him to lower his tone,” she added.
The irate man then lunged at the doctor and he was removed to another room by the ambulance driver.
He quickly returned, the doctor said, who remembered that ‘there was nothing but hatred on his face’.
The medical team left when he insisted on personally taking his wife to hospital.
The College of Physicians and the Medical Union issued a joint statement on Friday condemning the way the doctor was treated.
“She was subjected to racist insults, sexist treatment, threats and an attempt at physical aggression, which was prevented by the intervention of the ambulance driver,” they said.
“The involvement and collaboration of the whole of society is necessary to put an end, together and once and for all, this serious problem of aggression in the health service.”
Last year saw 499 incidents in which 587 health workers were attacked in the Murcia region- the highest number since records began.
Assaults have skyrocketed by 56% since the Covid pandemic, from the 319 incidents in 2019 to almost 500 in 2023.
Totally unacceptable. The colour of one’s skin is completely irrelevant in any circumstances. I hope and trust that the authorities will take this case to the judiciary to set an example.