Attacks on doctors also harm patients

A doctor at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, who suffered multiple injuries after being stabbed on Friday died a day later despite efforts by his colleagues to revive him.

Li Sheng is now part of statistical data — one of over a dozen doctors who have died in over 400 attacks from patients or their relatives since 2000.

Attacks on doctors will ultimately end up hurting the patients. After decades of policy encouragement, by the end of 2021 the number of registered doctors domestically had reached 4.28 million, which means there are about three doctors for every 1,000 residents, a figure that still needs to be improved going by the long lines outside hospitals.