Patient’s relative attacks doctor at Jēkabpils hospital

A doctor was attacked while working at Jēkabpils Regional Hospital after a patient arrived with several accompanying people, LSM reported, citing Vidusdaugavas Televīzija. The doctor suffered a concussion, and the hospital is considering ways to improve staff safety.

The doctor, identified as Jānis in the report under a changed name to protect his privacy, said he was examining a patient whose wound was bleeding when he was struck hard on the head.

Hospital board chairman Ervīns Keišs said the patient arrived at the emergency and admissions department with four accompanying people. The group made repeated complaints and moved around the room, causing blood to spread throughout the area.

Visitors’ aggressive behaviour made it difficult to examine the bleeding wound, so municipal police were called. When the doctor went to examine the patient, one of her relatives struck him and fled. The other people accompanying the patient later left the department.

Jēkabpils municipal police chief Inga Logina said officers saw two women near the hospital before the State Police arrived. The women behaved aggressively and refused both to identify themselves and to receive medical assistance.

The doctor said he had previously encountered verbal aggression and, more rarely, threats, but this was his first physical attack. Hospital staff said they had faced various situations in the past, but considered this incident the most serious.

The hospital management said medical workers had recently been increasingly exposed to aggression from patients and people accompanying them and would look for ways to improve security.