A MAN attacked a female doctor in Shenzhen People’s Hospital on Thursday afternoon, leaving her with a concussion, according to Sznews.com.

    A female patient, who claimed to have drunk pesticide after fighting with her boyfriend, went to Shenzhen People’s Hospital on Thursday to see a doctor in the emergency department.

    When the doctor told the patient that she needed to have her stomach pumped, the patient changed her statement, saying the pesticide was sprayed on her face, but she didn’t drink it.

    The patient refused to let the doctor pump her stomach. She asked the doctor to promise that she would be fine if she didn’t get treatment, but the doctor said she couldn’t promise that.

    The man who attended the female patient at the hospital became increasingly emotional.

    When the doctor was treating her next patient, the man returned and used a blood pressure monitor to hit the doctor in the face, leaving bruises.

    The Shenzhen People’s Hospital called police and said the man who attacked the doctor should be legally accountable.

    This is the latest case of violence against medical staff in the country despite the national authority has taken measures to beef up security in hospitals to prevent the deaths of doctors and nurses after attacks by patients and their relatives.

    In 2013, the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued security guidelines with the Ministry of Public Security to beef up security in hospitals. The guidelines suggest that the number of security guards in each hospital should be at least one per 20 patient beds, or no less than 3 percent of medical staff. The guidelines also call for alarm buttons, security doors and scanning equipment to detect weapons, plus more camera surveillance and foot patrols.

    A rash of violence has hit Shenzhen hospitals in recent months.

    On April 30, a nurse in a Nanshan hospital was slapped by a pregnant patient, allegedly because the patient felt pain while receiving injections.

    On June 3, a patient’s family member was detained for 10 days by police for beating a nurse in the Hong Kong University Shenzhen Hospital.

    On June 17, a nurse was knocked unconscious by a patient in the maternal and childcare service center in Futian District because the patient refused to stand in line.

    On June 20, a nurse with the emergency department of Hong Kong University Shenzhen Hospital was kicked and injured by a child’s parent.

    “All medical personnel feel insecure!” wrote Eric Chong, deputy secretary general of the China Hospital Association, on Sina Weibo, after three doctors in a hospital in Guangzhou were severely beaten by several people after they were unable to immediately take home the body of a deceased, elderly relative.

    “We need all sectors of society and the government to face up to this, and make a self-criticism! Otherwise China’s medical service has no future!” he wrote.

    A survey by Chong’s association, released in August 2013, showed the annual average number of assaults on doctors increased to 27.3 per hospital in 2012, up from 20.6 in 2008.

    Reasons for the violence included unsatisfactory treatment, poor doctor-patient communication, high expenses for patients and insufficient medical resources, the survey found. Nearly 40 percent of the medical staff surveyed at 316 hospitals said they planned to give up their profession because of the increase in violence, the survey said.

    (Zhang Yang)