The government is attacking #Metoo Hospital. The Ministry of Health presented, this Friday, May 31, a series of measures against gender-based and sexual violence. All staff in public hospitals and nursing homes will have to follow dedicated training. This “will be made compulsory from 2024, with a period of 3 years, for all professionals working in health, social and medico-social establishments of the hospital public service”, indicated the Ministry of Health in a statement.
Among the other measures announced are the creation of a national team of expert investigators, to assist health establishments in the event of reporting of gender-based and sexual violence. Today, the prospects that investigations will be successful after a report are too low, estimates the Ministry of Health. The specialized team “will make it possible to professionalize investigations” and “prevent inter-relationships”, in particular to avoid the stifling of cases.
Furthermore, the ministry will entrust an association specializing in supporting victims with the task of setting up “a support system”, with a “dedicated listening line” and “psychological, medical and professional support the victims”. The State will also create an annual barometer of sexist and sexual violence to “measure the extent of the phenomenon and monitor its evolution over time as well as the impact of prevention measures”.
“Putting an end to intolerable practices”
Speech has become clearer in recent weeks about gender-based violence in hospitals and in the health sector, following the publication in early April of a survey by Paris Match in which Karine Lacombe, head of the hospital infectious diseases department in Paris, accused emergency media specialist Patrick Pelloux of “sexual and moral harassment”.
On Wednesday, a few dozen people gathered near the Ministry of Health to call for “fighting sexist and sexual violence” in the medical environment and “demanding concrete measures”, before a delegation is received.
The Order of Physicians has also promised greater attention to gender-based violence, and will carry out a professional survey of doctors, the results of which will be known in October. “It is urgent to put an end to intolerable practices. It is not only the hospital but the entire (health) sector which must react and act,” indicated the Minister of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, cited in the press release.