Saudi Arabia: Doctors attacked in Mecca hospital

Abu Dhabi: An emergency doctor was slapped in the face by a patient in a Mecca hospital on Saturday, local media reported.

Police were investigating the incident as motives of the patient were not immediately known.

A patient came to the emergency ward of Al Noor Specialised Hospital in Mecca as he was complaining of swallowing problems.

The patient underwent the initial examination, and while waiting for results, he lost his temper, claiming that he had been waiting for a long time and had not been treated.

Another doctor intervened, after desperate attempts by the doctor failed to convince him that the results of the tests had not yet appeared.

However, the patient slipped towards the doctor while she was at her desk, and slapped her in the face in front of other patients and her colleagues.

Another doctor tried to prevent the patient from assaulting the doctor, but he was also hit in the face, got his glasses smashed.

This was the second such attack in the same hospital in less than a month, when family members of a patient attacked three Saudi doctors, one of them a consultant who sustained bruises and was admitted to the emergency ward.

Saudi Ministry of Health confirmed that assaulting a health practitioner verbally or physically is a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, and a fine of up to one million riyals.