Doctors and nurses in a south China hospital are wearing helmets
to shield themselves from attacks by a group of people who have
abused and tussled with them over a medical dispute.
"It's kind of weird but we have no other choice. For our safety,
our hospital decided to give every one a helmet, including doctors,
nurses, accountants and even utility men," said an official named
Zhang with the Shanxia Hospital in the coastal city of Shenzhen on
Sunday.
The conflict began when a patient who was checking out from the
hospital after 17 days of treatment suddenly became breathless and
died, said Zhang.
The patient came to Shanxia Hospital three weeks ago after a
traffic accident and initially responded well to treatment.
The hospital informed the relatives of the dead person of the
possible cause of death and asked for an autopsy to be carried out,
but the request was refused, said Zhang.
Since then a group of people came to the hospital each day, put
up offensive signs, abused doctors and nurses and even fought with
them, he said.
The police has stopped the troublemakers from setting fire to
paper -- a common practice in China when people wish to commemorate
the dead -- and putting up signs in the hospital but said they had
not witnessed any physical intimidation.
The hospital, which has been ordered to pay some compensation to
the dead person's relatives, protested at being made to pay when
the family of the dead person had refused an autopsy, said
Zhang.
Zhang said the hospital was the victim of intimidation tactics
and that authorities should prevent this from happening.
(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2006)