From 23 October, police patrols will be strengthened at urgent care entrances at Slovak hospitals, after a string of attacks on healthcare workers. Slovakia’s health minister Kamil Šaško said the decision was agreed with the interior minister, as incidents involving aggression towards staff have been multiplying. Hospital directors were told to introduce four basic security measures right away to speed up responses to aggressive patients and visitors. The plan follows a recent attack on a practical nurse at the Kramáre hospital in Bratislava. Šaško ordered a mapping of how urgent care entrances are protected in state hospitals and commissioned a unified security standard in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and the Police Force. Under the new measures, urgent care sites will expand emergency buttons linked directly to a central security desk or private security service, so help can be dispatched during all opening hours. A sound alarm will also be triggered instantly when the button is pressed. Targeted staff will receive practical retraining from certified instructors to recognize risk early, de-escalate conflicts, and protect themselves if there is immediate danger. The fourth step includes bolstering physical security and response teams, along with camera surveillance for entrances and public areas of higher-risk workplaces. The deployment comes after further violence. On Friday morning, a 34-year-old Irish man physically attacked hospital staff at the urgent care department of a hospital in Ružinov, Bratislava. The employee suffered an injury to the face, and police detained the attacker after arriving. The general prosecutor Maroš Žilinka said another attack in such a short time confirmed systemic failure in the protection of healthcare workers. Police actions and the security standard roll-out are ongoing, with hospital directors now responsible for implementing the four measures immediately.