Hospital scandal further eats away at public trust in China's healthcare
Over the past few weeks, what started as internet gossip about two doctors having an
inappropriate relationship became a cloud of conjecture and controversy over one of the most prestigious medical schools in China.
In mid-April, a letter circulated on the internet. It was apparently written by a woman accusing her husband, China-Japan Friendship Hospital surgeon Xiao Fei, of cheating on her with junior doctor Dong Xiying. More disturbingly, Xiao was revealed to have left an anaesthetised patient lying on the operating table so that he could defend Dong against a critical colleague.
The hospital's response was to announce on April 27 that it would fire Xiao, after finding the accusations in the letter to be true. But this did not quell public anger, because people soon turned their attention to Dong, the female protagonist of the scandal.
In the media and online, questions were raised about her unconventional path to medicine. Traditionally, anyone who wants to become a doctor in China needs to put in about 10 years, including three years of residency training.
Dong is an economics graduate who switched to medicine via Peking Union Medical College's experimental '4+4' programme, which allows graduates of non-medical disciplines to complete Doctor of Medicine studies and a shortened residency in just four years.
The US-style programme was launched by the college in 2018. At that time, college president Wang Chen said the idea was to break through the previous limitations of medical education and recruit multidisciplinary talent.
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