A
Beijing resident who assaulted a doctor and caused disorder at
Beijing Union Medical College Hospital was detained by police
yesterday.
The suspect, Gao Shang, and his relatives caused a disturbance in
the hospital on July 25 after his father died during an operation.
The dead man had suffered from a failure of the pituitary gland.
The son attacked a doctor who had no part in the operation after
the doctor tried to persuade him not to make noise in the
hospital.
This is just one of many cases involving doctors physically
attacked and sometimes even killed by their patients or patients'
family members.
Official statistics show that more than 500 such cases were
reported in Beijing in the past three years, with 90 doctors
injured or disabled.
Also last month, a senior doctor with a hospital in Central China's
Hunan Province was stabbed to death by his patient who was not
satisfied with the result of his treatment.
The deteriorating relations between doctors and patients has
damaged the interests of both sides and "should be improved through
reforms of the current medical system," an official with the
Ministry of Health said.
Patients and medical workers should understand and support each
other better. That is the effective way to avoid conflicts and have
problems settled reasonably, said Wu Mingjiang, director of the
Health Administration Department of the Ministry of Health.
Medical disputes are often triggered by dissatisfaction over the
quality of medical services provided by hospitals, such as poor
attitudes, the skill of the doctors and the high cost of medicines
and medical service.
Health authorities hope the situation will be improved through
medical reforms.
(China
Daily 08/08/2001)