Action urged on sexual abuse by carers, 400 cases reported

Sunday 07 October 2012

More than 400 patients have made formal complaints of sexual abuse by healthcare workers since 2007, RTL news reported at the weekend.

The figures come from the health inspectorate and only a handful of cases have ever been taken to court, RTL said. The offences range from sexually-tinted comments to 'forced sex', the paper states.

Most of the cases (169) concern people with a mental handicap, followed by psychiatric patients (113).

Shocking

Health law professor Joep Hubben told RTL the figures are ‘shocking. ‘Of course we knew there were incidents but this is a lot higher than I had expected.’

The nature of the incidents is also more serious than thought, in particular the involvement of people with a mental handicap ‘who should be protected’, he said. All forms of sexual contact between patient and carer are banned.

Junior health minister Marlies Veldhuizen van Zanten said the figures are shocking and that she is doing all she can to stamp out the practice.

It is only recently that care workers have been required to report all suspected abuse cases. ‘It is important to remove the taboo,’ she said. ‘If we get more reports, we can stop more perpetrators.’

© DutchNews.nl