Medicine becomes a 'dangerous profession'

(Baonghean) - The number of assaults on doctors and medical staff has been on the rise in recent years. Some hospitals even have to ask riot police to be on duty 24/7 in front of the emergency department...

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Surely many people have not forgotten the case of a business director in Vinh City who, because he thought his family member had an accident and was delayed in receiving emergency care, unreasonably assaulted doctors and nurses at Nghe An 115 Hospital on the night of August 18... According to Mr. Pham Van Dung - Deputy Director of 115 Hospital, that was just one of dozens of attacks and threats against doctors that have occurred here since the beginning of the year.

Mr. Dung added that recently, an elderly woman in Nghi Phu commune broke her leg and was taken to Hospital 115 for emergency treatment. “At that time, a group of relatives discussed taking the old woman to Hanoi for treatment, while another group insisted on having surgery here. They could not reach an agreement. The doctor saw this and was hesitant, not taking her to surgery yet.” Seeing the doctor hesitate, thinking that the hospital was slow, some of the patient’s relatives immediately rushed in and shouted. “They called about 40 more relatives, surrounded the emergency room. They pushed the doctor. They made a mess of the entire hospital,” said Dr. Dung. Luckily, the police force arrived in time so no serious fight broke out.

The assault occurred at Hospital 115 in mid-August. Photo courtesy

Talking about the reasons why doctors are attacked and threatened, Dr. Dung commented that it seems that in the eyes of the people, there are still many prejudices about doctors.

“For a period of time, more than 10 years ago, doctors’ incomes were very low. Therefore, envelopes often occurred in hospitals. Patients who wanted to see a doctor early or receive emergency care also had to have envelopes. Because of those actions, doctors were looked down upon,” said Mr. Dung. During that time, he did not even dare to raise his head to call himself a doctor when meeting friends. Although recently, the problem of envelopes in hospitals has been limited, it seems that prejudice against doctors has not been eliminated in the eyes of the people.

Working in the emergency department, regularly in contact with patients and their families, another doctor said that because Vietnamese people do not have the habit of queuing and lack discipline, it leads to chaos in emergency rooms. When they go to see a doctor, especially in emergency rooms, they tend to exaggerate their own illness and pay little attention to the serious condition of those around them.

That's why they often put pressure on doctors to be examined first, to have X-rays, ultrasounds right away, or to be treated immediately.

Similarly, doctors at Vinh General Hospital are also often attacked for trivial reasons. Opening his phone, which still has a video recording of two young girls rushing in to beat and trample a doctor right in the emergency room, Mr. Nguyen Hong Truong - Director of Vinh General Hospital said that this incident only happened a few weeks ago. "Those two girls worked at a nightclub, brought their friend to the emergency room. It was almost midnight, just because they thought the doctor was slow, they rushed in to beat him."

The director of Vinh City Hospital added that not long ago, a young man was injured in a fight and had to be hospitalized; after that, his friends brought a bag of weapons including knives, swords... and threw them into the emergency room, demanding that the hospital "take good care" of their friend. The incident caused panic among the doctors and nurses. Faced with the violence, Vinh City General Hospital recently even had to ask the riot police to be on duty 24/7 right in front of the hospital gate.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Truong also admitted that if more doctors were more skillful, some incidents of fighting might not have occurred: “A practicing doctor, from the moment he entered medical school, had to learn too much about his profession, so his knowledge about society and communication was not well equipped.

There are times when a patient’s family member is losing their temper, and if the doctor is good at communicating and speaking skillfully, he or she can calm them down. In general, doctors should be trained in these skills.”

A doctor in Quang Binh was beaten and injured by a patient's family member. Photo courtesy

Faced with the above situation, in June 2017, the National Assembly passed a law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code, in which attacking someone who treats you can result in up to 3 years in prison.

Accordingly, the new point of Article 134 of the Criminal Code on the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of others is to add 4 words "person who treats one's own illness", due to the problem of assaulting medical staff in recent times. With this law, a person who intentionally causes injury or harm to the health of another person with a bodily injury rate of 11% to 30% or less than 11%, shall be sentenced to non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or to imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years. The medical community and doctors mostly support the inclusion of assaulting medical staff in the Criminal Code for sanctions.

Doctors believe that in the past, medicine and teaching were the two most noble professions, called teachers, and were respected by the whole society. However, nowadays, teachers and doctors do not receive the same respect as before. This regulation helps create a legal corridor for doctors and doctors to practice their profession with peace of mind.

In life, any profession can have mistakes. When there is an incident, the parties should sit down and discuss based on the provisions of the law to determine "how to handle the error".

Tien Hung