China – 30th December, 2019: China's top legislature on Saturday passed a law on medical staff safety in a move which appeared to be a timely announcement after the brutal slaying of a Beijing emergency room doctor by a patient's son on Tuesday.
The Xinhua News Agency reported that the Basic Healthcare and Health Promotion Law states that the personal safety of medical personnel and their dignity are inviolable.
The law prohibits any organizations or individuals from threatening or endangering the safety of medical staff and will take effect on June 1.
Medical staff reached by the Global Times hailed the legal move but also asked for more detailed, specific practical protection after the murder of Dr. Yang Wen in a Beijing hospital on Christmas Day.
Yang, an emergency room physician, died when her neck was slashed by Sun Wenbin, her patient's son, on Christmas Eve.
Sun threatened Yang a few days before the tragedy after being told a bed shortage prevented his 95-year-old mother from being transferred to the inpatient department.
Yang's death ignited public anger on the Chinese internet, with users of China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo denouncing the murder and some suggesting hospitals install security checks.
The National Health Commission called the incident a "severe crime" - not a medical dispute - and reiterated on Friday that the department adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward violence against medical staff.
In the past decade, 24 medical personnel have died and 362 were injured in 295 reported cases, Caijing magazine said on Saturday.
A Beijing nurse who asked not to be named told the Global Times they had been "looking forward to legal protection for a long time" and she expected more detailed measures to be stipulated in specific regulations and laws after the guideline-like law was enacted.
She suggested doctors be entitled to call security before a knife is pulled, when they sense potential danger or violent behavior.
Hui Hui, a deputy director of the vasculocardiology department of Dalian Municipal Central Hospital in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, told the Global Times that he felt relieved to see attention for the issue "but more should be done to make the protection practical, such as blacklisting people with such records from public medical services."
Other countries also face the problem of violence against medical personnel and some have adopted prevention measures, Science and Technology reported.
South Korean law allows doctors to refuse to treat patients who use violence.
The law offers financial support to build evacuation routes and safe spaces in doctors' offices, the Beijing-based newspaper reported.
India released a draft law in September to imprison those who use violence against medical workers between three to 10 years and fines between 20,000 to 100,000 Indian rupees ($280-1,400).
Some 47 percent of interviewed emergency room physicians have been insulted, mostly by patients or their family members, according to a 2018 survey by the US National Association of EMS Physicians.
A metal detector and armed security must be at US public hospitals and people must pass through a security check before entry, City Journal, a US urban policy magazine, reported.
Source: http://www.ecns.cn/news/society/2019-12-30/detail-ifzscrpe6237655.shtml