Doctor allegedly assaulted at Prince Hamzah Hospital

AMMAN — A resident doctor at Prince Hamzah Hospital was allegedly assaulted on Tuesday night by a person accompanying a patient, Hospital Director Bassem Zu’bi told The Jordan Times on Wednesday morning. 

"The patient and the person accompanying him wanted to sign some papers to complete the administrative process, but the resident doctor asked them to wait till the next day as they came after the working hours," Zu'bi said, adding that this led to the alleged assault. 

In a Facebook post addressing the ministers of interior and health and the president of the Jordan Medical Association, the doctor’s father, Mazen Jawazneh, asked when this phenomenon of assaults on medical staff would end and what solutions there are to fix this recurrent problem.

In the post, Jawazneh, who is a former MP and a lawyer, said that his son was only performing his duty when he was assaulted, asking whether doctors should start carrying weapons to defend themselves against people who attack them. 

The people who reacted and commented on the post condemned the assault and wished Jawazneh's son a speedy recovery. 

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz in December 2018, during a meeting with the heads of several associations, stated that citizens who have a record of assaulting medical personnel will not benefit from a general pardon.

The step came after several medical figures, associations and ministry workers called for stricter laws dealing with cases of assault on hospital and emergency room personnel.

“We must put an end to this trend of attacking nurses and doctors. Harsher punishments must be given out,” said President of the Jordan Nurses and Midwives Council (JNMC) Khaled Rababaa in a report made available to The Jordan Times at the time.

More than 20 cases of attacking medical personnel, specifically nurses, were recorded in 2018, according to JNMC statistics. However, Rababaa said then that the figure only includes the reported “numbers of physical assault. Of course, verbal harassment cases are much more [numerous], and many of them go unreported”.