In less than a month after a mentally ill patient stabbed a psychiatrist to death, another patient stroke a knife against a doctor at a hospital in Seoul.

Seoul’s Seobu Police Station said it arrested a male patient, 57, for injuring a physician at a hospital in Eunpyeong-gu in northwestern Seoul, Thursday.

According to the police, the attacker wielded a knife against the psychiatrist at the hospital’s alley on the first floor at around 4:10 p.m., leaving a 1.5-centimeter wound on the doctor’s left hand.

Hospital staffs brought the patient under control by force, but one of them got a light injury.

The male patient has been staying at the hospital for treatment since November and was discharged on Wednesday with a doctor’s recommendation for transfer to another facility for the mentally ill.

The police said they would investigate the exact cause of the crime and seek an arrest warrant.

The accident threw the medical community into a shock, once again.

It has not been a month since a patient murdered psychiatrist Lim Se-won at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital. Physicians were working out measures to protect themselves from violent patients, but one of them could not avoid the attack this time.

Korean Medical Association’s spokesperson Park Jong-hyeok told Korea Biomedical Review that the doctors’ group would find facts and come up with a response plan.

“Just as we saw the case of the late professor Lim and this case, physicians are seeing patients in an unsafe environment,” Park said. “This is unfortunate for both doctors and patients. The political circles, the government and the society should put all efforts together to make a safe environment for patient care.”

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