The latest murder of a psychiatrist by a mentally ill patient in Busan, 20 months after a similar death of Professor Lim Se-won at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, prompted psychiatrists to call for effective measures to protect physicians.

The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association (KNA) released a statement on Friday to express “shock and sadness as the medical community had to hear the incident even before it could recover from the nightmare of Professor Lim Se-won’s death in late 2018.”

Even though the nation toughened punishment on those who attack medical professionals through the revised Medical Service Act since Lim’s death, a similar tragedy occurred, the KNA noted.

The clinic in Busan, where the patient killed the psychiatrist, was in a blind spot of the law because it was too small to be subject to mandatory safety enhancement measures, the association said.

Patients’ violent acts that threaten the survival of mom-and-pop clinics put people’s mental health in great danger, the KNA said. “The nation needs an environment where all medical professionals can treat patients safely,” it added.

The KNA called for a society where mentally ill patients have no difficulties in hospitalization, discharge, rehabilitation, social adjustment, and outpatient treatment. “We are once again asking to lay grounds for patients with mental illness to receive appropriate treatment without having to fight prejudice safely,” it said.

The Korean Employed Psychiatrists Association (KEPA) said patients’ assaults on psychiatrist stemmed from a misunderstanding about mental illness and the government’s negligence.

The group claimed that the state should be responsible for the full support for mental illness treatment.

The KEPA demanded the government integrate various legal, medical, and social systems to introduce a “mental health state responsibility system” where the government is responsible for the treatment and support of patients with mental illness.

To prepare the system swiftly and effectively, the nation needs a task force consisting of a court, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, psychiatric societies, and a group of patients’ families, the KEPA said.

“To prevent a similar tragedy, the government and the health authorities should take a quick measure,” it added.

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