MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile needs to address insecurity at medical facilities

Armed guards is a possibility that needs thorough evaluation, Tohá noted

Chile's Interior Minister Carolina Tohá admitted Tuesday that her country needed to review its security policies, particularly regarding healthcare facilities, where several incidents have been recorded. According to the National Confederation of Municipal Health Officials (Confusam), there were 7,184 aggressions against healthcare staff nationwide last year, and these figures are on the rise now.

In this scenario, Tohá said Tuesday that the so-called Proseguridad Cabinet would convene Friday to discuss new measures, which might include more cameras and better lighting and communication systems.

“If I am not mistaken, one of the topics on the table is precisely to analyze these different alternatives,” Tohá stressed.

The possibility of armed guards inside hospitals was also evaluated but it would “require a series of elements, conditions, and higher demands,” Tohá explained after a meeting with Health Minister Ximena Aguilera and Confusam leaders.

Tohá also pointed out that since 2022 more than US$ 4 million had been allocated to security measures in the municipalities, among them the so-called panic buttons.

Confusam leader Gabriela Flores highlighted that in places such as “Alto Hospicio, in the north of the country, our people work with bulletproof vests and helmets.”

Security at healthcare centers made the front pages after two acts of violence in the communes of La Granja and Puente Alto. In the first case, a teenager arrived with a backstabbing. Minutes later someone broke into the first-aid center to finish him off. Meanwhile, at the Bajos del Mena clinic in the municipality of Puente Alto, drug traffickers threatened to kill physicians if they treated wounded rival gang members.