CHINA> Regional
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CHINA> Regional
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Medical interns 'unlicensed'
By Zhang Yan and Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-06 07:24 The husband of a medical professor, whose death may be linked to unlicensed interns at her own university, told a Beijing court that student surgeons were illegally practicing medicine.
Wang Jianguo presented a report from the Beijing health inspection center that showed the three medical students did not have appropriate qualifications when treating his wife Xiong Zhuowei in 2006 at Peking University First Hospital, where Xiong used to work. The question on whether the three interns were licensed has become the central focus of a 5 million yuan ($732,000) compensation hearing at Beijing High Court. The report, made on Wang's request, showed the interns "did not get the approval signature from their mentor doctors" when they treated Xiong. "This practice violated the regulations for medical students without doctor licenses," the report said. The lawyer representing the hospital said the hospital's wrongdoing did not amount to "illegal practicing medicine". "The hospital was aware the students did not have licenses, and the fact that mentor doctors did not sign on medical records was a wrongdoing," said the lawyer. "But this has been a wide-spread issue in almost all medical institutions," she added. Yu Zhengrong, the only medical student of the group in court, said little during the hearing yesterday. The orthopedist gained his preliminary doctor qualification in 2005 and was waiting for his official doctor license to be issued by the health authority when he treated Xiong in 2006. "I felt wronged being a defendant. It was not my fault that I did not receive my license because of the procedure of the authority," the Beijing News quoted Yu as saying before the hearing. Fewer than 20 journalists were allowed to attend the hearing. Another 30 journalists had to wait outside the court. The controversy has sparked debate nationwide on medical qualifications after the national television network CCTV ran an investigative report on Tuesday linking the death of Xiong with the three medical students interning at the hospital. Law experts and insiders on medical practice said it is an open secret for hospitals to rush medical interns to doctor positions before they have their licenses. Insiders told METRO that the authority in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital warned its medical students to step down from doctor positions and stop writing prescriptions on Wednesday, one day after the case was first reported. Sun Wanjun, a veteran lawyer with Beijing Lawyers' Association who specializes in medical controversy cases, told the Legal Evening News he has worked on three separate cases concerning medical interns. "The most recent case concerns 30 medical students who treated one patient without getting licenses," the lawyer said. Xiong, 53-year-old, died on Jan 31, 2006, one week after surgery because her main artery to her lung became blocked. Wang said his wife's medical records showed that her ribs were broken, and her heart and liver were also damaged. Wang's lawyer Zhuo Xiaoqin told CCTV earlier that Xiong died because her ribs were broken in emergency aid, and this pierced the heart and then the liver. Wang said he demanded 5 million yuan in compensation for the death of his wife, an Australian passport holder. "We will donate the compensation to charity in the name of my wife," Wang told reporters after the hearing yesterday. "I hope no more people are harmed by illegal medicine practice in the future." |
