China Trying to Stem Attacks by Patients on Their Doctors (NYT)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/asia/china-trying-to-stem-attacks-by-patients-on-their-doctors.html

China Trying to Stem Attacks by Patients on Their Doctors
By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
Published: November 2, 2013

BEIJING — Two weeks ago in Guangdong Province, Dr. Xiong Xuming was left with a damaged eye and ruptured spleen after being beaten up by a patient’s relatives for refusing to allow them into the intensive care unit. Days later in Zhejiang Province, Dr. Wang Yunjie was stabbed to death by a patient unhappy with his treatment.

The attacks were just two of at least six such serious altercations in the past two weeks and part of a larger trend. The China Hospital Association says medical staff are attacked by patients or their relatives at a rate of once every two weeks per hospital, according to Chinese news agencies.

In a sign that the Chinese government is seriously concerned by the mounting violence, Prime Minister Li Keqiang addressed the issue this week.

Mr. Li was “paying utmost attention” to the situation and had written “important comments” requesting all government departments to take the problem seriously, according to a post on the government’s official Tencent Weibo, or microblog, account. He ordered government departments to take measures to “protect medical order,” it said.