China must heed anger over health care standards to curb hospital violence
Lijia Zhang says China must revamp its underfunded and corrupt health care system to assuage the public rage that is fuelling a rising number of violent attacks on medical staff
Medical workers used to be flatteringly called "angels in white" in mainland China. Now their profession has become one of the most dangerous, following a spate of bloody incidents at hospitals across the nation.
In mid-April, a male doctor on a maternity ward was severely beaten by a patient's husband in Jiangsu province; in March, a young doctor in Guangdong was attacked and paraded in public by dozens of people after he failed to save a drunken man from a heart attack.
To curb such crimes, on April 24, China's top legal bodies jointly issued guidelines warranting severe punishment for those who attack medical workers.
Hospital violence attracted massive media attention last October when a patient, Lian Enqing, angry over the outcome of his nasal surgery, stabbed three doctors at the No 1 People's Hospital in Wenling , Zhejiang province, killing one of them. A few days earlier, another unhappy patient stabbed his doctor six times before jumping to his death in northeast Liaoning province.
Many factors contribute to the growing violence in hospitals. A decline in morality has been blamed; specifically, the lack of channels for patients to complain. And the arbitration bodies, often affiliated with medical associations, are hardly independent. According to the Chinese media, before Lian took drastic action, he had tried repeatedly to complain but got nowhere.
Such attacks underscore the ills of the health care system as a whole. On the heels of economic reforms, hospitals were commercialised. With limited government funding, they have to generate income through treatment and drug sales to support themselves.