Attack on Doctors in Monte Grande Hospital Exposes Healthcare Crisis in Argentina

In Esteban Echeverría, after the attack on doctors, the number of police officers was doubled, and a patrol car was stationed in the area. These measures were taken urgently due to public outcry and the circulation of videos showing part of the aggression. Beyond specific responses, medical staff expressed a sense of abandonment. Some professionals questioned the silence of CICOP, while the College of Physicians of the Province of Buenos Aires issued a statement condemning repeated attacks and warning that these facts, now almost normalized, are deteriorating the healthcare system and affecting both the healthcare team and the community. The doctor called 911, but the attackers left before the police arrived. According to social and political sectors, the Kicillof administration reacts only to media events, without a comprehensive strategy to make what today seems routine exceptional: that a hospital emergency room is a territory of blows, threats, and chaos. While the provincial government makes intermittent announcements and political discussions revolving around the electoral calendar, the public system is exposed to a dynamic of violence that advances on the most vulnerable and on those who maintain emergency services. According to doctors, effective police presence was distant from the epicenter of tension—the emergency room—and municipal reinforcements were insufficient or poorly located to act quickly in case of an outbreak. The Municipality of Esteban Echeverría maintained that the hospital had security and that the scheme combines the Buenos Aires Police with urban guards. The core issue is that violence not only physically injures doctors and nurses: it breaks the care circuit, slows down emergency rooms, exposes critical patients, and turns a service that should be protected by definition into a "liberated zone." In this context, the case in Monte Grande is part of a broader picture of urban violence in the conurbano and a crisis of state authority in the province. The emergency room explained that the procedure depended on the surgeon on call and that at that moment, clinicians were present. According to their reconstruction, a man burst into the doctors' break room and demanded to be seen. In Buenos Aires, the fracture is not just that of a vertebra: it is the fracture of a social contract that weakens when the State cannot guarantee minimum security in a municipal hospital. In hospitals, schools, stations, and neighborhoods, aggression has become a tool of pressure, a way of venting, and a demonstration of power in contexts of waiting, precariousness, and social frustration. The case led to a complaint for injuries and an investigation to determine responsibilities and identify all participants, while the patient's subsequent medical care was verified. The severity of the attack forced the suspension of the hospital's usual service and a limitation to life-threatening emergencies. Inside, the staff emphasized that the episode was announced: a month earlier, professionals had sent a note to the hospital and the municipality warning of increasing aggression, uncontrolled entries, and a lack of minimum security conditions, also pointing out structural problems in access areas and circulation zones. The situation got out of control when the aggressor grabbed Funes by the arm, insulted her, and when the head of the guard intervened to calm the scene, a brawl ensued that ended with the doctor beaten against a metal door and a fire extinguisher before receiving another punch that caused a severe hematoma in his eye. Violence, according to the testimony of the professionals, increased when other people linked to the same group joined in. While colleagues tried to protect the head of the guard, Funes was punched in the face and then attacked by two women who grabbed her by the hair and assaulted her head, neck, and back. On the political front, the case revived criticism of Governor Axel Kicillof's management, accused of prioritizing the electoral dispute and alliance-building over an effective security and protection policy in critical public services. The 31-year-old neurologist, Agustina Funes, recounted that the conflict began over a demand for immediate attention to a patient waiting for stitches. The incident, which occurred on Sunday morning during the shift change, left one professional with cervical and dorsal injuries, and the head of the guard with a vertebral fracture and facial hematomas after receiving punches. A few minutes later, the man and his partner forcibly entered the restricted area and began shouting, insults, and shoving. The injured doctor continued to have neck and back pain, undergoing ART treatment and medical check-ups, while the head of the guard was subjected to tests that confirmed a vertebral fracture in the lumbar region with bone edema, with an indication of strict rest and the use of a brace for months, pending a decision on whether surgical intervention will be required. The incident also reopened union and corporate tensions. Buenos Aires - February 13, 2026 - Total News Agency - TNAL. The attack on two doctors in the emergency room of the Municipal Hospital Santa Marina in Monte Grande has once again set off alarms about a violence that is expanding in the province of Buenos Aires, crosses essential institutions, and becomes normalized in the conurbano under a climate of impunity. For the health personnel, the attack was not an isolated fact, but the confirmation of a daily deterioration that has been escalating without structural responses. However, the critical point is the absence of a visible and sustained provincial plan that combines prevention, operational presence, effective sanction, and protection of essential workers.