This year, the Clínic has treated 624 victims of sexual violence, 6% more

The Clínic hospital, a reference center for the city of Barcelona in the care of recent sexual assaults in victims over 16 years of age, has treated a total of 624 cases in the first 10 months of the year, 6.3% more than the same period of the previous year, and health officials are alarmed.

“It’s a sad day. The report is a true drama of our society. Each year that passes, the number of attacks and the number of complaints increases. It is almost a public health problem,” denounced the general director of the Clínic, Josep Maria Campistol, in an assessment very similar to that of last year.

Because the scourge of sexual violence is growing without apparent control in the city, especially in recent years. 297 victims treated in the Clínic emergency room in 2020, 468 in 2021, 659 in 2022, 678 in 2023 and 624 between January and October of this year, with the perspective of exceeding the figure of 700 attacks for the first time at the end of anus. In the last 5 years, the center has treated 2,726 cases of sexual assault.

“We would have to do much more from a political point of view, from a public health point of view. If we don’t do it together it is very complicated,” Campistol claimed in the presentation of the report, demanding “awareness, prevention, education from school and absolute forcefulness with the aggressors, who sometimes are not forceful enough.”

With nearly three decades of experience as a reference, the Clínic has developed a unique and effective model of care for victims of sexual violence that integrates everything from urgent care to monitoring the psychological and physiological consequences (sexually transmitted diseases) through helps in part of the legal procedure.

Thus, 60% of the people treated have been linked to the program for the prevention and treatment of psychological consequences, and 70% have been linked to the monitoring of infectious diseases.

It’s not enough. “We miss a national plan that involves all the departments involved (Social Rights, Education, Interior, Igualtat, Justice, Health). Now there is a fragmentation. “Everyone puts a lot of will, even a lot of resources, but there is no plan that organizes us to address the problem effectively,” says Lluïsa Garcia Esteve, president of the Clínic’s sexist violence and health commission.