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At 1:17 a.m. on July 20, the official WeChat public account of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University published a mourning article "Deeply Mourn Dr. Li Sheng": At about 13:00 on July 19, 2024, Dr. Li Sheng of the Department of Cardiology of our hospital was suddenly attacked by a man with a knife during outpatient treatment, causing multiple serious injuries. Dr. Li Sheng died at about 21:00 on July 19, 2024 due to his severe injuries and ineffective rescue.

「Dr. Li Sheng is a diligent, dedicated and devoted medical worker」，This was mentioned in a report from the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University.

In the comment area of ​​the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, a patient left a message saying that he had a lot of contact with Dr. Li in the past two years, and had two surgeries and many follow-up visits. The worries before going to see him were relieved after (communication) with his outpatient clinic, and he was often moved by his patience and kindness. Although he is the attending physician, it is more difficult to make an appointment with him than the chief physician. Most patients use the plus sign to find him for the first time, soHe is the first doctor to arrive and the last to leave on the same floor.. A patient left a message, Dr. LiI always work overtime and only leave after I have seen all the patients.

No one expected that such a good doctor who was deeply recognized by patients and colleagues would pass away in such a regrettable way!

At 10:34 am on July 20, the Zhejiang Provincial Medical Doctors Association and the Cardiovascular Medicine Branch of the Zhejiang Provincial Medical Doctors Association published an article on their official public account, Zhejiang Physicians, titled "Strongly Condemn Medical Injury and Maintain Harmonious Doctor-Patient Relationship."

The article states that violent harm to medical staff is a serious illegal and criminal act. We strongly condemn this and firmly oppose any form of violent harm to medical staff! We strongly call on all sectors of society to work together to maintain the normal medical order of hospitals and effectively protect the personal safety of medical staff. We strongly call for zero tolerance for violent harm to medical staff and medical disturbances. We must take all effective measures to severely punish acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of medical staff, firmly safeguard the dignity of medical staff, ensure the safe practice of medical staff, and return a safe and harmonious environment to the hospital!

At 15:56 on July 20, the Chinese Medical Doctors Association issued a statement on the incident of assaulting doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. The statement said, "We believe this is a serious illegal and criminal act. Here, we reiterate:

We firmly oppose any form of violent attacks on doctors.

Unwaveringly defend the dignity of medical staff.

We strongly urge relevant units to take effective measures to ensure the safety of medical staff.

We strongly call on all sectors of society to work together to create a harmonious, orderly and good medical environment.

After the doctor violence incident occurred, the Chinese Medical Association immediately expressed its concern about the incident and its care for all medical staff to the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University through the Zhejiang Provincial Medical Association. At the same time, it actively initiated the physician rights protection and relief procedures and provided assistance to the family of Dr. Li Sheng.

Medical violence incidents not only hurt the medical staff themselves, but also severely undermine the professional confidence of medical practitioners. Once medical staff develop psychological grievances and uneasiness, it will affect their self-confidence, mental outlook and the quality of care for patients.

After such a heartbreaking incident, we need to think again: How can we protect the personal and life safety of medical staff? How can we prevent the next tragedy from happening?

No grievance is a reason to resort to violence, and no emotion is a reason to harm a doctor.

Although mankind has made great progress in fighting diseases, medicine is still powerless in the face of many diseases. We must look at the limitations of medicine objectively and scientifically, and not be angry at doctors for no reason when there is no hope of cure or the treatment is ineffective, or even lose our minds and take revenge.

For medical staff who work day and night, a sense of security is their primary need.Ma Xiaopeng, director of Shenzhen Children's Hospital, once said that hospital leaders should hold up an umbrella for medical staff, protect them from wind and rain, and make them feel safe.

The hospital has formulated a "Procedure for Handling Personal Injuries Suffered by Medical Personnel Due to Work", added cameras in many places where medical violence is likely to occur, strengthened security in departments prone to hospital violence, installed alarm buttons in consulting rooms, and maintained good interaction with local police.

On July 20, 2024, Tao Yong, chief ophthalmologist at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, who was attacked in 2020, mourned Dr. Li Sheng on Weibo. In the article, Tao Yong condemned violent attacks on doctors and proposed that hospitals should set up security checks.

Tao Yong wrote:I am a witness to the incident of violence against doctors and I have initiated the initiative to set up security checks in hospitals.On June 5, 2020, the Beijing Municipal People's Congress voted to pass the "Beijing Hospital Safety and Order Management Regulations", and Beijing's secondary hospitals implemented security checks. Only in a safe environment can doctors treat patients with confidence and patients can receive treatment with confidence.To this day, I still firmly believe that promoting this model should be a broad consensus.

Security measures can enhance the sense of security of medical staff, but what really made me get out of the abyss and return to medical work was because I felt loved.There were four brave warriors at the scene who fought with the criminals and bought me precious time to live. Afterwards, countless netizens expressed their love through private messages, flowers, donations, etc. The collected love was like a quilt, tightly wrapping the frozen me.

Improving the medical environment is a social issue, and social problems require social forces to solve.Everyone can criticize from a God's perspective, but it is better to bend down and make some changes, love yourself and others, and the world will be a better place.

As a "lucky person" who survived the medical dispute,We are fully aware that only by providing doctors with a safe working environment can we allow these people who put on white coats one after another to devote themselves to curing diseases and saving lives and build a life barrier of mutual trust.Everyone who chooses medicine as a career has passion. This kind intention and firm choice should be protected by the whole society.

In recent years, the Ministry of Public Security and the National Health Commission have twice promoted the "Beijing Experience" to the whole country. In July 2021, one year after the implementation of the "Beijing Hospital Safety and Order Management Regulations", the law enforcement inspection team visited again.After the medical staff pressed the alarm button, it took only 50 seconds for the hospital security personnel and police officers from the police station to arrive at the scene.。

"The security guards in the hospital have no law enforcement power. With the police here, no one dares to make trouble." Zhao Lizhong, a doctor at the Beijing General Hospital of Aerospace and a survivor of a doctor-killing incident in 2012, once told Health World that after the police moved into hospitals and set up police stations, medical disturbances have decreased a lot. In recent years, the legal system of hospital safety and order has been greatly strengthened, and various measures have been greatly improved.

The number of security guards in hospitals should follow the principle of "higher rather than lower".The number of security guards shall be no less than 3% of the total number of medical staff on duty, or 1 security guard for every 20 beds, or 3‰ of the average daily outpatient volume.；

Hospitals should establish a doorman system.Strictly manage all entrances and exits, strengthen inspections of people and vehicles entering and leaving, and promptly detect suspicious situations.When a crime occurs in a hospital, the police must be called immediately and the perpetrators must be intercepted while ensuring their own safety to prevent them from escaping;

For hospitals that are large in scale and have complex public security situations in the surrounding areas, security inspection equipment can be installed in key areas of the hospital as appropriate, and efforts can be made to increase the inspection and confiscation of dangerous items such as controlled knives brought into medical institutions;

One-button alarm devices should be installed in the hospital guard room, departments and key areasIt is also connected to the hospital's safety monitoring center to ensure that when an emergency occurs, the security personnel can be notified in time and handled quickly.

In 2014, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, and the former National Health and Family Planning Commission jointly issued the "Opinions on Punishing Medical-Related Illegal and Criminal Acts in Accordance with the Law to Maintain Normal Medical Order", which clearly stated that six types of medical-related illegal and criminal acts, such as beating or intentional killing or injuring medical staff in hospitals, will be severely punished.

In 2021, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Public Security and other eight departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Hospital Safety and Order Management" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), reiterating「The number of security guards in hospitals shall be no less than 3% of the total number of medical staff on duty, or 1 security guard for every 20 beds or 3‰ of the average daily outpatient volume.」「One-button alarm devices should be installed in the hospital guard room, departments, and key areas.」And other requirements.

The Guiding Opinions require that large hospitals with an average daily outpatient volume of more than 5,000 or more beds shouldSecurity checks should be implemented at major entrances and exits；

Establish an early warning and reminder mechanism for high-risk patients. When encountering high-risk patients such as those threatening to commit violence, repeatedly making unreasonable trouble at the hospital, drunk and taking drugs, and patients with severe mental disorders who are at risk of causing accidents, medical staff should be reminded in a timely manner, and security personnel should be arranged to accompany the patients., report to the public security organs when necessary, conduct legal education for the parties concerned, and warn them of the consequences of their actions;

The hospital’s principal person in charge is the first person responsible for the hospital’s safety and order management.

The Guiding Opinions focus on the need to crack down on medical-related illegal and criminal activities on the one hand, and to build a long-term mechanism for the prevention and handling of medical disputes on the other hand, especially to strengthen source control and resolve medical disputes in a diversified manner.Strive to resolve medical disputes in their infancy and initial stages; Increase the efforts in guidance and control to strictly prevent individual extreme cases.

Building a harmonious doctor-patient relationship requires the participation of the whole society.

The "Physician Law of the People's Republic of China" which came into effect on March 1, 2022, states that "medical and health institutions should improve security measures, maintain good medical order, promptly and proactively resolve medical disputes, and ensure the safety of physicians' practice."Any organization or individual is prohibited from obstructing doctors from practicing according to law or interfering with their normal work and life.」「It is prohibited to infringe upon the personal dignity and personal safety of doctors by means of insults, slander, threats, beatings, etc." and other laws were written into the law, strengthening the legal provisions of the Ninth Amendment to the Criminal Law that criminalize "medical disturbances".

The "Medical Practitioners Law of the People's Republic of China" clearly states that the people's governments at or above the county level and their relevant departments shall incorporate the prevention and handling of medical disputes into the comprehensive social security management system, strengthen the comprehensive security management of medical and health institutions and their surrounding areas, maintain a good practice environment for medical and health institutions, effectively prevent and crack down on medical-related illegal and criminal activities in accordance with the law, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of both doctors and patients.

Preventing violence

What should hospitals do?

Paul Linsley, author of the book "Preventing Violence in Healthcare Facilities" produced by Health World, believes that hospitals should provide corresponding safeguards and measures in terms of the physical environment.

First, access to healthcare buildings should be controlled and monitored, and, where possible,Set up a single entry and exit。

Waiting rooms should be as comfortable as possible to avoid causing confusion, anxiety or anger to those waiting. Smoking areas should be provided if possible and dedicated rooms should be provided where appropriate.

Service points such as reception desks and nurse stations should be protected by fences to prevent patients from harassing medical staff, throwing objects inside or directly entering the service point.

Inadequate or poorly laid out spaces can create tensions between their users, increasing the risk of violence and aggression in health-care settings. Health-care facilities should be designed to ensure a uncrowded working environment for health-care staff.

Outpatient rooms should ensure privacy while ensuring that medical staff and patients are not completely isolated from the outside world. Emergency departments need to safely isolate emotionally agitated patients or their families to protect the patient, their families, other patients, and medical staff.

Rooms used for consultation or service should be designed with two exits and office facilities should be placed appropriately to prevent medical staff from being trapped. Doors should be equipped with strong glass or plastic panels to facilitate colleagues to monitor the indoor situation through the glass or plastic panels.（These partitions can be frosted to provide a degree of privacy.）。

Patient access to consultation rooms, treatment rooms and other work areas for medical staff also needs to be restricted. Fire regulations require that all waiting room doors be locked only from the inside and exterior doors be locked only from the outside to prevent unauthorized entry.

Medical institutions shouldProvide separate, secure, lockable toilets and other amenities for medical staffAll employees working in protected areas, whether permanent or temporary, should be provided with keys to allow them to enter and exit during their shifts.

Finally, during the patient consultation, medical staff should try to avoid being interrupted by the outside world, whether it is a phone call or other people intruding. If this behavior happens repeatedly, it will make the patient feel irritated. However, while preventing interruptions, it is also necessary to ensure that medical staff can maintain contact with the outside world.