Rau B.1, Rather A.2, Eshaya-Chauvin B.3
1International Committe of the Red Cross, Health Unit, Geneva, Switzerland, 2International Committee of the Red Cross, Physical Rehabilitation, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 3International Committee of the Red Cross, Directorate of Operations, Geneva, Switzerland
Background: ICRC has launched in 2008 a project entitled “Health Care in Danger”. Violence against health care workers, facilities and patients is a very worrying humanitarian issue with numerous incidents worldwide. WCPT has signed in 2015 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ICRC to combat violence against patients and health workers. The aim of the ICRC project is to mobilize its network of delegations, movement partners and other members of the health community like the World Health Organisation to create awareness & prevent such incidents.
Purpose: To raise awareness of the Health Care in Danger Project to the WCPT member organisations and the international physiotherapy population following WCPT's engagement in this matter.
Methods: This presentation summarizes the findings and recommendations of various workshops and reports the ICRC has published between 2012 and 2016 on this topic.
Results: Examples of violence against health staff and institutions are unfortunately very frequently reported in the daily news. The conflict in Syria reports too often attacks on health staff and structures or restriction of access to health services. A mixed method study conducted in Karachi (L. Anasari Baig et al, 2016) showed that 2/3rd of its participants experienced a form of violence (verbal or physical). Closer to the ICRC headquarters, Geneva university hospital reported 23 cases of violence against their staff in 2016 and planned to increase the security measures and to offer self-defence courses to its staff (Le Temps, 2016). Key recommendations of international workshops conducted by the ICRC range from mobilizing the society and religious leaders, improving safety of health facilities, reinforcing the knowledge of ethical principles to training of health professionals.
Conclusion(s): After signing the ICRC-WCPT MoU, B. Myers (WCPT) highlighted the long-term commitment needed to fight violence against Health Care. As mentioned, this does not happen only in war torn contexts but also in high income and stable countries. We believe that physiotherapists need to be part of this project in order to report such events and play a more active role in the prevention and the implementation of key recommendations. As stated by P. Maurer (ICRC president) at the United Nations (UN, Resolution 2286, 2016) meeting: more concrete action is necessary. We hope that this presentation will be a step towards a stronger involvement of the physiotherapy community.
Implications: The ICRC invites physiotherapists worldwide to be part of the project to prevent attacks against health care workers and facilities. Specific recommendations should be discussed with WCPT in order for physiotherapists to be concretely part of this movement and alleviate the burden of violence worldwide.
Funding acknowledgements: None
Topic: Globalisation: health systems, policies & strategies
Ethics approval: Ethics approval was not required
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
