Minister of Health urges police to ensure hospital security

The move came after a recent spate of physical attacks on patients and doctors at hospitals.

The Minister urged the public security ministry to quickly investigate the incidents and punish those who carried out the attacks.

Data from the health ministry revealed that four attacks reportedly took place in hospitals between April 8 and May 7.

The first case occurred on April 8 in Cai Nuoc General Hospital in southern Ca Mau province. A group of youngsters holding knives and scimitars attacked a patient named Nguyen Hoang Linh, leaving him with a head injury. The group also injured the hospital’s security guard.

The second case happened in Hanoi’s Thach That General Hospital when Can Ngoc Giang, father of one-year-old patient Can Ngoc Thanh, threw a cup at a doctor’s head on April 16 because he thought that doctors had failed to properly treat his son.

The third case was recorded in Thai Nguyen General Hospital in northern Thai Nguyen Province. A patient’s relative repeatedly hit a medical staffer, Pham Le Tung, in the face on May 3. Tung was struck while he was waiting for other medical staff to take a medical stretcher to carry the patient out to the emergency room. The patient’s relative asked Tung to take the patient to the room without the stretcher, instead of waiting. Tung said it would be better to take the patient by the stretcher, then he was hit.

The fourth case happened on early morning May 7. A group of 20 youngsters with knives and scimitars cut off the windpipe of a patient who was taken to the Hanoi Medical University Hospital about 20 minutes earlier. The gangsters also used their knives and scimitars to control security guards and medical staff.

The Minister asked the ministry of public security to order its unit in localities to closely work with hospitals to quickly fix the situation.

The police in localities should conduct short training courses for hospital security teams to better deal with physical attackers as well as instruct hospitals to install equipment to ensure security, she said.

Hotlines of the nearest police stations for hospitals were ordered so that the hospitals could call for immediate supports in emergency cases, she added.