Uproar after hospitals turn away pregnant woman

KUNMING - Doctors and nurses at three hospitals have been labeled as "cruel and inhumane" after they turned away a pregnant woman who was carrying a stillborn fetus.

The woman, Zhao Qiongfen, was told to "try elsewhere" by doctors at the hospitals in Southwest China's Yunnan province on October 25, when she needed help after learning that the fetus she was carrying had died.

Medical staff with Yan'an Hospital, Kunming Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Third People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, all in Kunming city, capital of Yunnan, declined to operate as they did not have medicine or bed.

Yunnan Provincial Health Department confirmed with Xinhua on Tuesday that six medical workers at two hospitals involved in the incident have been held accountable. Some of them have been put under a three-month suspension from their posts.

The health department is investigating whether the other hospital was short of beds.

The three hospitals have admitted to having "service problems" during the incident and have apologized to Zhao. She is currently in another hospital after having a cesarean delivery.

"Our doctors involved in the incident lack a sense of responsibility," said Gu Xin, vice head of Yan'an Hospital. "They have violated doctors' code of ethics."

But Gu did not say why the doctors turned Zhao away.

The refusal to treat Zhao has sparked outrage in China's cyberspace, with some saying that doctors feared she would try to extort compensation for the stillbirth. Others said the doctors simply did not want to get into trouble.

Chinese bloggers have described the doctors and nurses at the hospitals as being "inhumane and cruel."

Anger had increased after it was misreported that the fetus' death was caused by the refusal to hospitalize Zhao, which was widely circulated on the Internet.

"That's appalling," said blogger Shaoerxinzhi on Sina Weibo. "But is it true they turned away the pregnant woman because of a lack of facilities and medicine?"

A small number of bloggers showed their understanding for the doctors, citing incidents where patients have blackmailed or even attacked doctors for the slightest of mistakes.

The latest incident could further strain already tense relations between doctors and patients in the country.

There is deep mistrust between overworked but underpaid doctors and patients, who are faced with high medical bills and brief consultations.

It has led to an array of attacks over the past few years.

In one of the most notorious cases, a teenager stabbed a doctor to death and injured three others at a hospital in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

The convicted young man confessed in court that he attacked the medical workers because he believed they denied him treatment because he and his family were poor.