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Tensions between Medical Professionals and Patients in Mainland China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2011

XINQING ZHANG  and
MARGARET SLEEBOOM-FAULKNER
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Extract

In China, state investment into public hospitals has radically decreased since the early 1980s and has brought on the dismantling of the healthcare system in most parts of the country, especially in rural areas. As a result of this overhaul, the majority of public hospitals have needed to compete in the so-called socialist market economy. The market economy stimulated public hospitals to modernize, take on highly qualified medical professionals, and dispense new therapies and drugs. At same time, liberalization has clearly affected the attitude and behavior of both medical professionals and the general public. The public has many concerns about the healthcare system for various reasons: there are long hospital waiting lists, patients experience difficulties in obtaining an appointment to see a qualified doctor, and, over the past decades, there has been an increase in out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure. These and other changes in post-reform China have radically reshaped the doctor–patient interaction, which is increasingly eroded by tension and violence.

Type
Special Section: Bioethics beyond Borders 2011
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 458 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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