The National Police has made public the data on attacks on toilets in the workplace, corresponding to the year 2021. Juan Carlos Castro, general commissioner of Citizen Security, and Manuel Yanguas, head of the unit of Private Security and national health police interlocutor, have been in charge of making the presentation. The president and general secretary of the General Council of Dentists of Spain, doctors Óscar Castro and Jaime Sánchez, as well as representatives of the Collegiate Medical Organization and the General Council of Pharmacists, among others, also attended the event.

During the past year, 225 complaints of attacks on health professionals were registered, compared to 197 in 2020, which represents an increase of 14%. This increase, as explained by the health police interlocutor, is due to "the return to face-to-face attendance at hospital and health centers, as well as the monitoring of compliance with the hygienic-sanitary measures due to COVID-19, which, in many cases, it is the reason for the frustration that leads to the aggression”.

As for the type of aggression, most are verbal (52%) and 48% of the complaints are for physical injuries. Other data that emerges from the report is that a total of 9,129 police actions have been carried out, 2,967 in health centers and 6,162 in home care.

Also noteworthy is the training in aggression prevention given by the health police interlocutor, which has been extended to security professionals who protect health workers, "reaching more than 2,000 health and safety professionals". Since 2017, more than 12,000 health professionals have been trained in this area.

The profile of the aggressor is usually male, Spanish, between 36 and 55 years old. The victim is usually a woman of a similar age and also of Spanish nationality. The provinces with the most attacks were Madrid, Seville, Cádiz and Málaga, with the highest percentage of attacks occurring in the month of October.

Likewise, the National Police has presented a series of new measures to reduce this type of aggression. Among them, the implementation of training activities in the university environment, aimed at the prevention of aggressions for future health professionals, stands out. On the other hand, public awareness campaigns will continue with the production of guides, videos, etc.; the presence of police interlocutors in health centers will be increased with the “IPNS 2.0” project; collaboration with professional associations in the field of training will be intensified; as well as contact with the security departments of the health sector. In addition, the email address ucsp.ipnsadjunto@policia.es continues to be operational., advising health professionals 24 hours a day, any day of the week. Finally, the "modification of the instruction of the Secretary of State for Security will be proposed, assuming more powers and extending it to more professions that perform functions in the health field, in addition to the proposals for on- site complaints in the health center", explained the health police interlocutor.

Likewise, the help request tools that health professionals have at their disposal were recalled, such as the security service telephone, the discreet warning system (anti-panic button), the Alercops application and the National Police telephone number 091.

In the words of the president of the General Council of Dentists, "it is important that health professionals denounce this type of aggression, which affects our quality of life in the workplace, as well as the quality of care for citizens."