Beijing's Municipal Bureau of Health, which oversees hospitals in the city, called on Friday for the capital's medical facilities to be vigilant in order to prevent attacks on their staff.
The announcement was posted on its website, one day after a doctor in Beijing Tongren Hospital was stabbed by a patient.
Xu Wen, 43, a chief physician in the hospital's otolaryngology department, was stabbed over a dozen times, the Legal Mirror newspaper reported on Friday.
"The left biceps were slashed, the bones were exposed, nerves and tendons were damaged, the right forearm was fractured, and she was gashed on her left leg and forehead," said the newspaper.
After an operation lasting nine hours, Xu was moved into intensive unit. "She is likely out of danger," one of the hospital's doctors, surnamed Guan, told the Global Times on Friday.
Police arrested the suspect, a 54-year-old Beijing resident, two hours later. But the matter is still under investigation.
According to a caing.com report Friday, the suspect was a calligrapher named Wang Baoming, who was angered by an alleged case of medical malpractice years ago.
Wang claimed on his blog that Xu had operated on his throat cancer but that it was "not done completely and thoroughly," leaving him unable to speak, smell or work after two operations. Wang said he had also sued Tong-ren hospital for 17 million yuan ($2.63 million) in compensation, but that his case had been adjourned indefinitely.
Hospital sources said it was hard to judge whether Xu would be able to return to her full duties after recovery, with her ability to carry on as a surgeon being particularly in doubt.
On Thursday, the hospital called for the "murderer to be punished."
Conflicts between patients and doctors have increased of late.
This month, Mu Xinlin, an associate professor at the People's Hospital of Peking University, was beaten by family members of patients, resulting in multiple fractures and injuries to his spinal cord.
Also in August, a man wielding a kitchen knife stabbed a doctor to death and injured another in the city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province.