Doctor axed to death in N China hospital (2)

The attack is likely to further erode already strained relations between doctors and patients in China.

There is deep mistrust between overworked but underpaid Chinese doctors and patients, who are faced with high medical bills and brief consultations.

In one of the most notorious hospital attack cases, a teenager stabbed a doctor to death and injured three others at a hospital in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, in March.

The convicted man, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last month, confessed in court that he attacked the medical workers because he believed they denied him treatment because he and his family were poor.