Italy's government faced calls on Tuesday from health workers to send the army to protect public hospitals, after a string of assaults against doctors and nurses who say they are not only overworked and underpaid, but also physically endangered, Reuters reported.

Last week in the southern city of Foggia a team of doctors and nurses said they had to barricade themselves in a room to flee the angry relatives and friends of a young woman who died during surgery.

Her family said they blamed hospital staff for her death, according to Italian media. A hospital official said the clinic and the judiciary are investigating the death.

Images of some of the hospital staff pushing a sofa and a chest of drawers to secure the door have been circulated widely on social media and news sites.

Two assaults have since taken place at the same hospital, with an 18-year-old patient attacking three emergency room nurses late on Sunday and the son of a patient hitting two nurses and a security guard on Monday, police and staff said.

"We want zero tolerance in hospitals ... We want the army to let both citizens and doctors know that they are protected," Barbara Mangiacavalli, head of the national federation of nurses, was quoted as saying by Il Messaggero daily.

Filippo Anelli, president of Italy's national federation of doctors, echoed the call for army protection, and asked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to tap into EU post-COVID funds to improve hospital security.

Hospital doctors unions are planning to protest the attacks in Foggia on Sept. 16. According to the health ministry, there were more than 16,000 attacks on health workers last year.

Health Minister Orazio Schillaci has called the recent series of incidents "shameful", while his deputy Marcello Gemmato said such crimes would not remain unpunished.

A senator from Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, Ignazio Zullo, has proposed a law to exclude from free hospital treatment people who assault medical staff for a period of three years, earning the support of some doctors' associations.

Like other European countries, Italy is facing a crisis in its national health service, with a shortage of staff exacerbated by stressful working conditions, low pay and public spending constraints.

"Violence is one of the main causes that makes people decide to leave the medical and healthcare profession,” said Delia Epifani, head of the Italian doctors' union SMI in Puglia, the region that comprises Foggia.