A compensation system should be established to encourage
hospitals to save the lives of emergency patients who cannot afford
the care, says an editorial in China Youth Daily. An
excerpt follows:
In the national work meeting last week, the Ministry of Health
stressed that hospitals should enforce the first-visit
responsibility system in treating emergency patients. Refusing to
save endangered patients should be strictly forbidden. Hospitals
and doctors should insist on the emergency room principle of treat
first and pay later.
Medical workers should shoulder the noble responsibility of
healing the wounded and saving the dying. Hospitals must not give
up their social responsibility for profit making.
Public opinion advocates that hospitals must not refuse patients
who cannot afford treatment. But it is not rare to see hospitals
rejecting such patients.
To solve the problem, the government should do more than just
stress patients' rights.
Last year, the Beijing municipal government provided that it
would pay for emergency treatment of vagrant patients. This
measure, though not enough to heighten medical ethics, is more
effective in ensuring patents' interests.
At present hospitals are economic bodies responsible for their
own profits or losses. Providing free treatment will certainly be a
burden for hospitals and affect their development.
It is the responsibility of hospitals to respect the rights of
patients but it is more the job of the government. The government
should not only stress the importance of saving patients' lives but
also relieve hospitals of their financial concerns.
Only by building a compensation system can the bottleneck be
broken.
(China Daily April 4, 2007)