MRC slams rape treatment
2003-12-02 22:50
Johannesburg - It is not up to doctors or nurses to decide whether rape victims are telling the truth or not.
They should leave the facts about the attack to the courts and involve themselves rather with the victim's welfare.
This was the reaction of Nicola Christofides, a senior researcher at the Medical Research Council (MRC) into gender-based violence and health to a study that found three-quarters of doctors and nurses who helped rape survivors in South Africa were not trained to do so.
"We are still seeing lots of negative attitudes towards, and gender stereotyping of, rape victims.
"There are still health workers who believe that women "ask for it".
"We see doctors who want to know why a woman, "who is dressed like that" and has used alcohol, is on the street on New Year's Eve. He makes a judgment based on what he can see."
Drawing up guidelines and policies
Health workers, especially, doubt people who go to hospital only quite a while after the attack has taken place.
Christofides said this often happened when victims denied the attack or feared ill treatment.
She said health workers should treat each case as if it was the truth and should leave the facts to legal experts.
The MRC is in the process of helping the government draw up guidelines and policy for the handling of rape survivors. These should be approved soon.
Under the new guidelines, rape cases will be a priority and health workers will have to ask permission for each step of the medical examination (such as Aids counselling and blood tests).