The SAE nurses union is demanding firm action against the "scourge" of attacks on health service personnel.
The demand was made yesterday in light of the latest incidents of threatening behaviour, insults and pushing staff. These occurred over a four-day period earlier in August at four different health centres in Palma.
A spokesperson for the union, Daniel Torres, said that some of these incidents pass "unnoticed" and that the penalties handed out in these cases are not sufficient.
The SAE believes that there have been more incidents than ones which have been reported as some staff choose not to make a report.
Torres insisted that there can be no justification for violence, be this physical or verbal. Health workers, whose job it is to care for people, should not have to accept the risk of being exposed to attacks.
Firm measures should mean more than just fines. Moreover, there should be strategies of awareness-raising in order to combat "these lamentable episodes".