Families dressed in mourning clothes are a regular sight at mainland hospitals, as are attacks on doctors by disgruntled patients or their relatives.
While some are professional yi nao (medical hooligans), paid to put pressure on hospitals so that they pay compensation claims quickly, others are patients just trying to find out whether their suffering can be linked to malpractice.
A Beijing lawyer specialising in medical lawsuits says they turn to dramatic protest action because the regular, legal way for patients to seek redress is a long, bumpy road.
Zhu Yonggen, a lawyer at King Virtue Attorneys at Law, said patients were usually at a disadvantage when pursuing a lawsuit.
After the mainland's tort law, which governs legal liabilities under civil law for wrongful action, was reinforced in July last year, patients have to provide evidence that a medical blunder caused the damage they suffered. But patients lacking medical knowledge have a hard time proving they have been wronged, especially when their medical charts and records are kept in hospitals and are inaccessible.
'When legal proceedings start, the medical record should be sealed but the first reaction of a hospital is to window dress the medical records, such as describing the patient as being in a more serious condition or completing a chart. It happens in all the cases I represent, even the big, famous ones,' Zhu said.
The tort law stipulates hospitals will be held liable if medical charts are forged, fabricated or destroyed but that is often an unresolved matter of dispute.
