Arrest after new attack on healthcare staff

[memory man]

A 39-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of Saturday after attacking a nurse in an ambulance that was transferring him to the Paphos general hospital.

Police said that an ambulance was called in at around 3am to pick up a 39-year-old man who was drunk, from a street in Paphos. After picking him up, and while the ambulance was on its way to the hospital, the 39-year-old reportedly attacked the male nurse who was escorting him, grabbing him by the neck.

Police officers who were following the ambulance arrested the man. The nurse was treated for with light injuries to the neck.

This is the second such incident this week, and raises their number to around 15 for this year.

A 27-year-old man was arrested on Thursday and is to remain in custody until November 2 when he will be formally charged, after reportedly attacking two doctors at the Larnaca general hospital’s A&E.

According to police, the 27-year-old man visited the hospital’s emergency department at around 7.20pm the previous night because of a pain in his leg. After examining him, doctors sent him in a wheelchair to the radiology department for X-rays.

At 7.45pm he returned from the department and without apparent reason, he started to shout and swear at staff, throwing his mobile phone at a doctor.

He then hit another doctor who had bent down to pick up the phone.

Last week, a 36-year-old man was arrested for allegedly attacking a nurse, a doctor and a police guard at the Paphos general hospital.

The suspect, who was reportedly drunk, was arrested after causing grievous bodily harm to a nurse and a doctor. He also attacked the police officer who had gone to arrest him.

Health Minister Giorgos Pamboridis condemned the attacks. He recently announced that the state has decided to install security cameras at emergency departments and hire private security guards to assist police in their work. The authorities were also considering amending the law to introduce stricter penalties for such attacks.

State doctors and nurses went on a two-hour work stoppage last month to protest the authorities’ failure to prevent such attacks against them at the A&Es.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/10/28/arres ... are-staff/