Harbin doctor's killing highlights problem for hospitals

On the day his son was stabbed to death, it snowed. On the day of the young man's funeral, it snowed. Now, as Wang Dongqing regards the snow blanketing his son's tomb after learning the killer had been sentenced to life imprisonment, he sees the snow as a sign that God has seen justice done.

His son, Wang Hao , had been due to begin his medical studies at the University of Hong Kong's Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine this autumn. He had been serving as an intern at the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University when he was killed in a knife attack by a 17-year old patient he had never treated. Three other doctors were injured in the rampage.

"On both the day following my son's death, and on his funeral day, it snowed. I think that's the revelation from God who sympathises with Wang Hao, killed by someone with whom he had no connection," Wang Dongqing wrote on his microblog from his home in Chifeng , Inner Mongolia .

And yet, as many as 70 per cent of respondents in a an internet survey expressed sympathy with Li's frustrations and cheered the fatal stabbing.

The tragedy demonstrates the growing tensions between patients and doctors on the mainland. There has been a spate of cases in which dissatisfied, frustrated and angry patients or their families have attacked doctors.

Although official data is unavailable, reports in the state media say that in 2010 there were more than 17,000 "violent incidents" at health-care facilities nationwide, a 70 per cent increase from 2004.