Healthcare workers interrupt work after a fatal violent incident

Fatal stabbing incident at mental health institution Heerlen

The reason for this is the recent stabbing incident in a mental health institution in Heerlen in which a nurse specialist died on April 23. NU’91 is holding this action out of respect for the victim and draws attention to the increasing aggression towards healthcare providers.

‘No words for it’

Femke Merel van Kooten, chairman of NU’91: “Our condolences go out to the relatives of the healthcare professional. What happened there is terrible, there are no words for it. Someone died at work. A place where she should be safe. How could this go so wrong?”

Safe work

According to NU’91, violence towards healthcare professionals has been a major problem for years. According to various own polls, it even seems to be increasing. Van Kooten: “Every healthcare professional must be able to do his or her work safely. We have been saying for so long that safety is the first priority, but in practice this often turns out not to be the case. We hear that the right resources, such as a working alarm button, are lacking. Or that healthcare professionals are not listened to when they indicate that a situation is unsafe. That really needs to change now. How many more victims must there be?”

Time for action

That is why NU’91 called on all healthcare professionals to stop work for two minutes on May 2. To draw even more attention to the problem, we have created a visual that everyone can share on social media. You can download this visual while standing for use in the stories. You can use the square format for a social media post. The accompanying hashtag stopagressieindezorg was devised.