The Taiwan Medical Association (TMA) yesterday urged police to catch the person who attacked a Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital urologist on Wednesday.
Huang Chung-yen (黃中研), the director and attending physician in the department of endocrinology and metabolism, was seeing a patient at the morning outpatient clinic at the hospital in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) when a man burst into his office and attacked him with an iron rod.
Huang sustained injuries to his left arm and right leg.
Although the patient tried to detain the attacker, the man fled and escaped in a taxi.
According to witnesses, the attacker appeared to be in his twenties, was about 1.7m tall and was wearing a white sports jacket, the police said.
They said they have contacted the taxi driver who drove the attacker to Taipei Railway Station.
The taxi driver was quoted by police as saying that the suspect had said he was going to take the high-speed rail south.
The hospital said the attack was immediately reported to the police, and emphasized that it would “not tolerate violence,” adding that it planned to take legal action against the attacker.
The association also criticized the attack.
“One of our colleagues was violently attacked as he was providing medical care. We are extremely angry and distressed,” the association said in a statement.
“We hope the doctor can recover soon, and the association will do its best to provide the necessary support and assistance,” it said.
The incident demonstrated that violence to medical personnel can occur anywhere, not just in emergency rooms, so violence prevention measures need to be improved in outpatient clinics, wards, operating rooms and nursing stations.
Hospitals and clinics, and all healthcare practitioners, should emphasize how to handle these situations to reduce damage and to prevent them, the association said.
“The association strongly condemns any type of violence to healthcare practitioners and demands that authorities cooperate with related facilities, groups or civil forces to do what must be done to create a medical environment in which healthcare practitioners and the public feel safe,” it said.
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