Is access to quality healthcare a right of all citizens or a privilege for the privileged? Consider the prospect of a growing disparity between the halves and have nots and the frustration of those excluded from the better hospitals and physicians because of the inability to pay. Imagine the potential for violence as patients observe loved ones needlessly dying or facing disabling injury as a result of poor or inadequate treatment. Hospitals demanding police protection, but officers concerned that they are public servants and not body guards. 2000 people riot at a hospital which refuses to treat a three year old who is unable to pay an $82.00 up front fee. A pediatrician jumps out of a fifth floor window to avoid the wrath of angry relative of an infant who died under his care. Relatives beat doctors and nurses with mops and sticks for referring feverish patient to an outside clinic. 5,500 medical workers injured by patients in a single year. A grim vision of the future?
Welcome to western healthcare in China today where over half of the doctors have no better than a high school education and many a junior high school education or less. Half of the babies in the country are delivered by Caesarean Section. Hospitals make over half of their income through the sale of drugs to patients many of which or totally ineffective. Doctors are incentivized by the hospitals to overprescribe drugs and costly diagnostic tests. Hospitals are actively developing and supporting hospital mediation centers to dissipate the anger and violence toward physicians and hospital workers as the country strives to catch up with western countries in providing its citizens meaningful access to quality health care. The entire story can be read in a New York Times article by Sharon LaFraniere, “Discontent on Health Care Spurs Violence at Hospitals in China,” August 12, 2010. It might be safer and more effective to stick with traditional Chinese folk medicine than to rely on poorly administered and delivered western options. Acupuncture anyone?
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