A Stockholm-based hospital now houses what will now be known as the world’s first emergency department designated specifically for male rape victims. In a bid to promote gender equality in care of patients, the clinic at Södersjukhuset was opened on Thursday, October 15, 2015.
Before now, the clinic already ran a 24-hour walk-in clinic for women and girls who were sexually assaulted and the clinic is known to treat between 600 and 700 patients each year. The clinic will now attend to men who suffer rape and sexual attacks.
Through a statement, Marie Ljungberg Schött, a local Moderate Party party politician and council representative on emergency had this to say:
“Emergency medical care for raped men will be free of charge, and offered around the clock, all year.
“So far there has been no specific place for men who are victims of rape to turn to. Therefore we in the Alliance have decided to change this.”
According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 370 cases of sexual assault on men or boys were reported across Sweden in 2014.
