Article in the Australian

ALMOST every GP in Australia has been threatened, assaulted or verbally abused as drug addiction, long queues and disputes over medical bills push unstable patients over the edge.

The first national survey of violence against GPs suggests 88 per cent have been subjected to verbal aggression and one in six have been physically attacked by patients or their relatives.
One in five had been sexually harassed, 8 per cent said they had been stalked and 2 per cent reported being sexually assaulted.
The taxpayer-funded survey suggests 6 per cent of Australia's 23,000 GPs have been physically assaulted in the past 12 months alone -- twice the assault rate for the general community.
It found receptionists were frequent targets of aggression, with one in five saying they were verbally abused on a weekly basis.
The Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute study found drug-affected and drug-seeking men were the most common perpetrators.

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"Triggers to patient-initiated aggression included procedural issues such as long waiting times to see a doctor, unavailability of the doctor of choice and refusal of specific patient-requested medication or treatment," the institute found in the yet-to-be-published study. "Other triggers of aggression included issues of payment and refusal of bulk-billing."
Difficulties with overseas-trained doctors and discrimination against female GPs were also reported as possible triggers.
The aggression often had a lasting affect on victims, with 38 per cent reporting an impact on their emotional wellbeing, and 14 per cent suffering physical injury.
Violence was more common in metropolitan clinics, particularly towards closing time.
The study found most GPs believed their professional associations had not done enough to address the dangers facing them.
Sydney GP Raymond Seidler, who now gives talks to doctors about how to reduce the risk of practice violence, is one who has suffered such an attack.
"I have been knocked down by a drunk patient -- he took a swipe at me because I refused to see him because he was intoxicated," Dr Seidler said.
Sydney GP Theodore Rothonis was stabbed in the back in April 2009 as he wrote out a prescription by a patient he already knew to be schizophrenic.
The knife was driven in so hard it bent, chipping his spine and puncturing both lungs.
"You never turn your back on people again, whether they are women or children or whatever," he said.