Authorities lash out at poor hospital management over trafficking babies
Health authorities order review as more families come forward saying hospital tricked them into giving up their newborns
The state health commission has ordered a nationwide review of hospital following the exposure of child-trafficking operation in Shaanxi that involved a hospital maternity doctor who may have collaborated with human traffickers for more than eight years.
Dr Zhang Shuxia , an obstetrician working at the Fuping Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital in Fuping county, allegedly sold a newborn boy after misleading the parents into believing that their child had congenital diseases, then convincing them to give up the boy.
"[The commission's top officials] see it as morally degraded, illegal and intolerable," said Mao Qunan , a spokesman for the National Health and Family Planning Commission said yesterday.
Meanwhile, more families have come forward saying they were also deceived into giving up their children.
State media reported yesterday that the baby boy had been reunited with his parents, mother Dong Shanshan and father Lai Guofeng . "Dong held him tightly as family members wept before the parents knelt to thank police for recovering their infant," the China Daily reported.
Mao said the case illustrated problems involving poor management and regulatory loopholes at some hospitals, Xinhua reported. The commission has ordered Shaanxi health authorities to "severely punish" those responsible in the scandal, and instructed local health authorities across the nation to review and overhaul management where necessary at hospitals.