Woman arrested for beating doctor, pregnant nurse

A woman in central China's Hunan Province has been arrested for leading enraged family members of a patient to beat a doctor and a pregnant nurse in the latest hospital attack that shocked the nation.

The public security bureau of Changsha, capital of Hunan, said in a statement that a 45-year-old woman surnamed Ouyang had been arrested for her role in the assault that happened at the wee hours of Monday.

Victims of the violence were a female doctor and a nurse five months into pregnancy. Their hospital, the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, said the doctor suffered bruises and concussion, and the nurse reported signs of threatened miscarriage.

Police said Ouyang and other relatives of a lung cancer patient beat the doctor and the nurse because they were dissatisfied with the emergency treatment. After the patient died, Ouyang also forced the 29-year-old doctor to kneel before the body for several minutes.

But police cited a forensic report as saying what the two medical staff had sustained did not constitute slight injuries.

Police said Ouyang was unemployed but did not reveal identities of other attackers. The nurse said one attacker claimed to be a civil servant.

China has seen a spate of attacks on medical staff in recent years amid strained patient-doctor relations. Chinese patients often accuse doctors of rushing consultations and prescribing excessive medicines, while doctors have complained about overwork, low pay and being frequently misunderstood.

In October 2013, a man stabbed a doctor to death and wounded two others at a hospital in the eastern city of Wenling in Zhejiang Province. The man later confessed he was angry with the results of a previous nasal surgery.