Heartbreaking letter 'Blood-stained blouse' from the Minister of Health

Every time I hear about a doctor, nurse or health worker being assaulted, I feel as if I myself have been insulted.

I was overcome with anger, sadness and disappointment. Anger because doctors never deserve to be treated like this. Sadness because all the efforts of the medical profession, my colleagues and the Ministry of Health to prevent this evil have not brought the desired results. Disappointment because doctors are still alone in their journey.

Three weeks ago, the People's Court of Thach That District (Hanoi) sentenced defendant Can Ngoc Giang to nine months in prison, who used a glass cup to hit a doctor at Thach That District General Hospital on the head, causing him to faint on the spot, have two head injuries, require seven stitches, and must be monitored for traumatic brain injury.

Doctor Hoang Thi Minh was assaulted in the emergency room at Nghe An 115 Hospital. Photo: Camera extract

I went to the hospital to visit him in the evening a few days after the incident. The young doctor was lying on the hospital bed with a white bandage on his head. His blood-stained blouse had been replaced with a blue hospital gown, making his face look even paler. For some reason, the whole time I was standing next to him, the image of doctors with blood-stained blouses kept appearing in my mind.

At that moment, I vowed to do everything so that the doctor's coat - a symbol of peace - would never be stained with blood, so that doctors would never become victims of violence.

I recall the story of another doctor's blood-stained blouse. Exactly 6 years ago, Dr. Pham Duc Giau of Vu Thu General Hospital (Thai Binh) was stabbed in the pericardium by a patient's family member, causing his death. In a simple house with almost no property, I could not hold back my tears when looking at his altar. The two things I remember most are the stethoscope and the patient monitoring notebook. He died at work, leaving behind an 87-year-old mother and two daughters studying in secondary school. But his case did not meet the conditions to be recognized as a martyr. We could only discuss with the provincial health and education sector to accept one daughter as a nurse and the other as a teacher.

Later, the killer of Dr. Giau was sentenced to life in prison. It was thought that the severe sentences for those who assaulted doctors would be a wake-up call for society. However, in recent times, there have been other cases of insults and assaults against doctors, but the nature of the crimes and the psychological and physical consequences for doctors have not decreased at all.

For example, some notable cases in the past 3 months: 20 thugs with weapons stormed into Hanoi Medical University Hospital, controlled a doctor and slashed a patient (May 2017); beat and forced a doctor to kneel at Hanoi Sports Hospital (June 2017), a doctor was hit in the head with a blood pressure monitor by a subject at Viet Yen General Hospital, Bac Giang (July 2017). Not only that, the attackers also filmed a video (the case of insulting a doctor at Mong Cai Medical Center), even broadcast it live on Facebook (the case of assaulting a doctor at Ninh Binh General Hospital) as a challenge to society.

And most recently, on the evening of August 18, a director of a company that had just been voted into the list of 100 “Excellent Startup Enterprises of 2017” repeatedly punched Dr. Hoang Thi Minh in the face, who was on duty at the Emergency Department of Nghe An Hospital 115. Witnessing this hooliganism was the Chairman of the Ward People’s Committee, whose presence there needs to be clarified. With his role, any citizen who is subjected to violence must be defended, let alone a doctor on duty.

A female doctor confided to me that she had been assaulted, but what hurt her was not the physical pain but the comments on social media: “What kind of attitude must you have had towards your patients to be assaulted?” This mentality is widespread in society. Any act of violence against doctors should be condemned and punished, but people turn around and blame the doctors. That is an attitude that is not objective and humane.

If an airline employee is assaulted by a passenger, that passenger is immediately banned from flying; but saving lives, no matter who they are, is the mission of a doctor.

As a physician, I believe it is time that hooliganism in the assault of physicians be treated as acts of resistance against law enforcement officers.

Only then can doctors who do not have a single weapon in their hands feel secure in their medical activities and save lives in a safe, humane, and non-violent environment.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien