The police in Shanghai Pudong New Area and a top surgeon exchanged mutual expressions of remorse after a doctor was handcuffed and forcibly removed from Renji hospital following a dispute with the husband of a wheelchair-bound patient.

The police said the husband, identified by his surname, Han, fractured a rib in the incident, and Zhao Xiaojing, the doctor, was slightly injured.

Zhao, a well-known thoracic surgeon in China, said the patient and her husband did not make an appointment and tried to force their way into his consultation room several times when he was seeing other patients.

After police were called and the couple were taken to the police station for investigation, Zhao rejected a police order to leave the hospital and go to the station to help finish the investigation. Zhao refused, saying he had "patients to treat and meetings", the police said.

Zhao told officers that he had to take care of his patients first and would go to the police station at the end of the day. But the police rejected his offer.

When officers tried to force the defiant doctor to leave, another scuffle ensued, and the officers finally handcuffed Zhao and forcibly removed him from the building.

When the incident was reported in the media, members of the public wondered online whether the doctor had been shown due respect by the police.

Police said the couple tried to visit the doctor at the agreed time on Wednesday afternoon, and that the surgeon had said he would see the wheelchair-bound woman on Wednesday afternoon out of sympathy, though she failed to make an appointment, which usually needs to be done a month in advance.

A short video posted on Sina Weibo showed a medical worker jostling with a police officer. The incident drew attention from celebrities including actor Hu Ge and internet personality Wang Sicong.

Many raised their eyebrows on the police officers' use of force on a medical expert who tried to maintain order at the hospital. Others said the surgeon should not have challenged the police order.

In a statement published online on Saturday, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association called for more respect toward medical professionals and said a doctor-patient conflict at a hospital should not be handled as a typical civil dispute.

In an interview with ThePaper.cn, Huang Bo, director of the Tangqiao police station, said the complicated environment posed a challenge to how officers could do their job in a civilized and effective way.

"If the officers could control their emotions and have enough patience to wait for the doctor to finish his job, or to handle the case in a delicate and thoughtful way, it wouldn't escalate into a physical conflict with the doctor or even using handcuffs on him," Huang said.

Zhao said the incident has helped him understand the procedures of a police officer's routine job.

"Both parties could have done better to avoid the conflict," he said. "I will be on high alert against such incidents in the future. I should have reported to the hospital management or police when the patients tried to enter the consultation room in the first place."

Renji Hospital declined to comment on Sunday, while the police had yet to announce a decision on whether the surgeon or the patient would be subject to a penalty.

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