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China punishes hospital for operating room photos

BEIJING — Chinese health authorities put a hospital president on probation and fired three others following public outrage over photos posted online of smiling medical staff posing with patients in the middle of surgery.

BEIJING — Chinese health authorities put a hospital president on probation and fired three others following public outrage over photos posted online of smiling medical staff posing with patients in the middle of surgery.

The photos were taken in August at Fengcheng Hospital in the north-central city of Xi’an and leaked on social media over the weekend. Online commentators criticised medical staff for being unprofessional and disrespectful of patients, while others defended the photos, saying they were intended to be private and were taken at the end of surgical procedures.

The Xi’an Bureau of Public Health, which handed out the punishment, said in a statement yesterday (Dec 21) that the staff took the photos to memorialise the operating room, which was to be relocated.

Nevertheless, the bureau said it requested everyone involved in the photo scandal to offer self-critiques. The bureau also put the hospital president probation for one year and fired a deputy president, the head nurse and the person in charge of anaesthetics.

Tensions have run high between health workers and patients in China. Patients often complain about poor medical services and high costs, especially the need to bribe doctors and nurses in exchange for competent services. Chinese health workers say they are overworked and underpaid. AP

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