[Exclusive] Despite two security guards being on site, Severance doctor attacked with a knife in exam room

[Financial News] It has been confirmed that security guards were already stationed around the clock in the treatment area when a doctor was attacked with a weapon in the psychiatry department at Sinchon Severance Hospital on the 4th. Safety measures at medical institutions were strengthened after the 2018 killing of the late Professor Lim Se-won, but the attack in a treatment area where security guards were stationed has once again raised questions about the effectiveness of safety systems in clinical settings.
According to a Sinchon Severance Hospital official on the 5th, around two security guards are normally stationed around the clock in the psychiatry outpatient clinic. The official said security guards had been stationed in the department since before 2021 and were on duty when the incident occurred the previous day.
The hospital added security staff to the psychiatry department after the incident. However, because the hospital receives many visitors even on weekdays, it does not conduct separate screening to check whether people are carrying dangerous items such as knives.
When our newspaper visited the hospital that day, we found that people could access the psychiatry department’s registration and waiting areas without being asked the purpose of their visit. After a reporter stayed in the area, a security guard came over and asked why they were there. By contrast, we saw no dedicated security guards stationed outside examination rooms in the plastic surgery department on the same floor or in some outpatient treatment areas on other floors.
A woman in her 50s is suspected of injuring a doctor by swinging a weapon she was carrying in an examination room in the psychiatry department at Sinchon Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, Seoul, at around 4:35 p.m. the previous day. Police arrested Ms. A at the scene on suspicion of assault causing injury with a dangerous weapon.
During police questioning, Ms. A said she had put a kitchen knife she used at home in a shopping bag and brought it with her. Police concluded that she had intended to kill and plan to seek an arrest warrant on a charge of attempted murder from the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office that day.
Investigators are still looking into the specific circumstances in which Ms. A entered the examination room and whether she had previously been treated by the doctor who was injured.
In December 2018, Professor Lim Se-won of the psychiatry department at Gangbuk Samsung Hospital was killed by a patient wielding a weapon during a consultation. The so-called Lim Se-won Act was later enacted to strengthen measures such as emergency alert systems and security staffing at medical institutions, but crimes targeting medical staff continue.
The Korean Hospital Association issued a statement that day, saying, “Laws and systems are in place, but they do not effectively guarantee safety in clinical settings.” It urged hospitals to review their security systems so they can prevent weapons from being brought into medical institutions and acts of violence from occurring.

[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter