Two doctors in eastern China escaped with a six-month suspension
after they were found responsible for allowing unlicensed medical
personnel to treat a baby girl who subsequently died from an
incorrect diagnosis.
China's Ministry of Health on Monday announced the punishments
for Xu Kaiben, the head of pediatrics at the People's Hospital of
Guangde County in Anhui Province, and one of his deputies, Yi
Shaoxiang, in a circular issued nationwide.
"The crackdown on unlicensed practicing and faulty hospital
management has been going on for two years, but some medical
institutes and local government health departments have failed to
effectively carry out the ban, harming people's interests and
tainting the image of the health sector," the circular said.
The ministry ordered localities to "strictly punish" the people
who ignored the ban.
On May 5, 2006, a baby girl named Ouyang Siyu was admitted to
the Guangde hospital. She died in hospital that night after being
diagnosed with flu and put on a drip. The results of the autopsy,
which was insisted on by the parents, showed that the baby actually
suffered from a heart problem and died of an overdose of drip
infusions, the official China Central Television (CCTV) earlier
reported. The report sparked a public outcry.
"Three out of the five doctors treating Ouyang did not have a
practitioner's license," the circular said.
Xu Kaiben failed to show up to operation on the baby girl and
took two days to sign the prescriptions made by Zhou Shaoli, an
unlicensed medical school graduate who was allowed to treat Ouyang
without any other doctors present, the circular said.
Yi Shaoxiang, Xu's deputy, was partly responsible for Ouyang's
death as he made an incorrect diagnosis of the girl, it added.
Further investigations found three other doctors and two nurses
in Guangde hospital practicing without a license, the circular
said. They were not related to Ouyang's case. The fate of the
unlicensed medical practitioners was not revealed in the
circular.
The hospital was fined 5,000 yuan and the local government was
urged to punish the president of the hospital.
(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2007)