Medical mishap: attacks and aggression became the main threats for doctors

Doctors and health workers are regularly attacked and aggressed by patients and their relatives, representatives of insurance companies and insurers told Izvestia. In some cases, doctors were seriously injured. The State Duma noted that it is necessary to introduce increased responsibility for attacks on doctors — more than a thousand such cases occur every year. About why the medical profession has become dangerous and what threatens crimes against them — in the material of Izvestia.

What are the main threats to doctors?

There are regular cases of attacks on doctors in Russia, insurance companies told Izvestia. In some cases, physical violence leads to serious consequences, AlfaStrakhovanie said. There have been incidents in which employees suffered traumatic brain injuries and were treated for a long time.

"Medical workers work daily in high—risk conditions — on the roads, in unsafe entrances and in a difficult social environment," said Victoria Morozova, head of the company's Corporate accident insurance department.

In addition to physical harm, such situations increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorders and may affect the ability to continue working.

"The high-profile incidents of recent years show that we are not talking about isolated episodes. So, in different regions, cases of attacks on doctors with knives and firearms, beatings on calls and in medical institutions were recorded," the insurance company emphasized.

Doctors are constantly faced with claims from patients or their relatives, Dmitry Shishkin, head of the Ingosstrakh Liability Insurance Department, confirmed.

"Claims are made for an extensive list of reasons, in particular, misdiagnosis, incorrect appointments, harm to the child's life and the mother's health during childbirth, various difficulties during surgical operations," the expert noted. — The number and amounts of claims are growing every year — over the past 10 years, there have been 30 times more claims.

According to Dmitry Shishkin, in a number of regions, lawyers are on duty near large medical centers, who offer patients to file a claim against the organization or doctor right at the entrance to the hospital.

"According to our data, almost every major hospital faces dozens or even hundreds of claims from patients per year," he said. — According to the company's statistics, since 2020, internists have been in the first place in terms of the amounts of claims filed, while obstetricians, gynecologists and surgeons have been in the second and third places.

Polina Grigorieva, head of Rosgosstrakh's personal insurance payments department, added that pets can sometimes pose a danger during ambulance calls.

— Many owners of dogs and cats are sure that they have the most peaceful animals and will not bite anyone, but different smells come from the teams, they are in different places, including where there are different pets. Plus the smell of medicines, which can provoke animals to aggression," she said. — For example, there was a case when a medical worker was bitten by a cat, and he received open wounds to his wrist and right hand.

A separate category consists of accidents during the execution of a call, added in "AlfaStrakhovanie". In one of the insurance cases, an ambulance employee suffered a fractured vertebra and a concussion. The period of temporary disability exceeded 200 days, according to the results of the examination, partial disability was established. Such injuries require long-term treatment and comprehensive rehabilitation.

A significant part of the injuries are also related to working conditions, such as movement to the place of call and inside buildings. In addition, doctors have an increased risk of HIV and other diseases when they come into contact with patients, said Igor Ivanov, Vice President of RESO-Garantia.

Recent cases

In mid-April 2026, the October Court of Arkhangelsk arrested a man suspected of being drunk and attacking two medical students from India who were relaxing in a cafe and, according to the attacker, behaved too loudly.

The suspect "intentionally stabbed one of the victims in the chest with a knife for hooligan motives, and stabbed the other twice in the chest and stomach," the court said.

At the end of March 2026, the Chkalovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg sentenced a local resident for assaulting a medic. The incident had occurred four months earlier. In the hospital, a woman caused a scandal in the ultrasound doctor's office. The doctor refused to see a relative of the accused without an appointment, then the woman screamed and hit the medic on the head. The court ordered her 200 hours of compulsory labor.

At the same time, in the Tver region, police detained a 49-year-old man who, intoxicated, attacked a surgeon at the Kimry Central district Hospital, the Regional Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. At night, an ambulance crew took a man to the hospital after a family conflict. A drunken brawler attacked a surgeon who was helping him. He publicly insulted and threatened the doctor. A criminal case on hooliganism has been opened.

Before that, the patient beat up a nurse and an anesthesiologist in a Nizhny Novgorod hospital. The nurse approached the incoming patient to take his blood pressure, but the man reacted inappropriately and suddenly attacked her. Other employees came running to the screams, then the aggressor attacked the anesthesiologist. The witnesses called the police. The victims were taken to the emergency room, where they were diagnosed with broken nose bones and other injuries.

Why are doctors being attacked?

The increase in aggression against doctors and medical staff is not an accidental outburst, but a symptom of deeper psychological and social processes, says family and child psychologist Maria Todorova.

"Such reactions are based not so much on anger as on a lack of a sense of security in the person himself," the expert said. — The medical situation is stressful by nature. When a person or their loved one encounters an illness, the basic mechanisms of anxiety and vulnerability are activated. Normally, this anxiety should be "digested" through attachment relationships: support, trust, and the feeling that someone is there to help you cope. But if there is no such support, the psyche is looking for other ways to release tension.

In these conditions, the doctor begins to be perceived not as an assistant, but as a figure on which to relieve internal tension, the specialist emphasized. This is a typical displacement mechanism: impotence, fear, and anxiety turn into aggression, because aggression subjectively gives a sense of control. A person who cannot cope with his emotions tries to restore this feeling through pressure on another.

"The general level of anxiety in society plays a separate role," Maria Todorova added. — Information overload, the flow of negative news, and a high pace of life create chronic stress. In such an environment, people's tolerance to frustration decreases — they tolerate expectation, uncertainty, and limitations worse. And the medical system, by its very nature, is associated precisely with expectation and uncertainty, which increases conflict.

Currently, an attack on a doctor or an ambulance employee does not constitute an independent crime and is qualified by general criteria, said Alexander Shushakov, a lawyer for the Interregional Bar Association, a non-profit organization.

— The legal assessment in each specific case is determined by the nature and consequences of violence, he noted.

But there are qualifying compounds in the case of an attack on a medical professional, namely, "in relation to a person or his relatives in connection with the performance of a public duty," added Kirill Tupitsyn, a civil law lawyer.

— Attacks on a medical worker can also be qualified as committed with hooligan motives, — he noted. — For assaulting a medical worker, malefactors can be charged under articles on beatings, intentional infliction of minor harm to health, causing moderate harm, and others. On average, this can lead to two to ten years.

Alexey Kurinny, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection, noted that bills have been introduced in Russia more than once to increase responsibility for attacks on doctors.

"But they get a negative government reaction," he said. — It is necessary to increase responsibility, because these people are doing their duty. However, we are referred to the Criminal Code, which already provides for increased responsibility in the performance of official duties.

The parliamentarian recalled that according to statistics, more than a thousand attacks on doctors occur in Russia every year.