On March 11, 2009 at around noon, Perdo Navarro, a 74 year-old retired cab driver, reported to a public clinic in Moratalla, Murcia (Spain) complaining of respiratory problems. At the time, a nurse scheduled him for an appointment that same day at 7PM. Instead of attending his appointment, Navarro visited a clinic in a neighboring town and upon his return to Moratalla went on a shooting spree at the clinic that had turned him away earlier.
That night, Navarro killed the on-call, 34-year-old, family medicine resident Dr. María Eugenia Moreno Martínez and seriously wounded an EMT, who ran into the hospital when he heard the gun shots. The death toll would have been much higher if Navarro’s gun hadn’t jammed.
The incident sent shock waves throughout Spain, a country in which the ownership of firearms is illegal and gun crime is rare in comparison with the US. However, doctors and union leaders alike say that this event is a clear indication of the danger that doctors face on a daily basis at the hands of disgruntled patients.
The doctor’s union in Murcia has gone so far as to claim that the incident at Moratalla could have been avoided had the clinic had better security. In fact, those in charge of occupational risk at the complex in question had requested changes to the emergency alert system, a request that was denied because the clinic already had emergency alarms and was considered a low risk facility.
Doctors’ unions nationwide have been clamoring for increased security measures that have, for the most part, fallen on deaf ears. With doctors across Spain up in arms about the murder of their colleague, several different unions publically demanded improvements to the Assault Prevention Plan, demanding advances in its implementation, as well as the administration’s follow-up on violent cases and an emergency meeting between the Sectorial Bureau of Health and the Safety and Health Committee.
-Justine Bayod Espoz, Marketing Manager for Picore