China's top health authority and the Ministry of Public Security have sent a joint work group to Shaodong county, Central China's Hunan Province to investigate the death of a doctor, the second killed by patients in May.
Wang Jun, a doctor at Shaodong County People's Hospital, was beaten up by a patient's relatives while he was treating the patient on Wednesday and died of his injuries later that day, according to a statement published on the website of National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) on Thursday.
Two suspects were captured by local police and another suspect later turned himself in to the authorities, the statement added.
NHFPC condemned the attack and pledged to resolutely safeguard the security of all medical staff in China.
Wang was not the only doctor killed by a patient in May.
Chen Zhongwei, former director of the stomatology department at Guangdong General Hospital, died three days after he was stabbed by a former patient on May 5. The assailant killed himself after the attack.
Chen's death caused other medical workers all over China to become increasingly concerned about their own safety and sparked an unprecedented nationwide campaign to pay respects to Chen. The campaign, which was posted on Sina Weibo under the hashtag "black ribbon campaign," garnered more than 2.5 million page views and over 2,000 comments within two days.
There were 115 assaults or murders of doctors in 2014, news site thepaper.cn reported.
