Violence against doctors is frighteningly common
令人恐惧的医疗暴力频频发生
PATIENTS /IN CHINA /keep attacking their doctors. On January 27th Hu Shuyun, a physician in the southern province of Jiangxi, died after being assaulted on a ward. A few days earlier three medical workers at a hospital in Hangzhou, an eastern city, were injured when a patient set off a homemade bomb. Every month brings more shocking stories. Chinese even has a word for it: yinao, meaning “medical disturbance”. Between 2004 and 2016, the number of such disputes that ended up in court rose from 8,854 to 21,480. But only a fraction of cases get that far. In 2016 the National Health and Family Planning Commission acknowledged that it had mediated more than 60,000 disputes.
在中国，病人殴打医生的事件时有发生。1月21日，江西省的一名内科医生胡淑云在病房内遭受攻击后死亡。此前几天，在杭州一家医院内，一名患者引爆了一枚自制炸弹，造成三名医护人员受伤。每个月有更多令人震惊的医闹事件发生。汉语里甚至有一个词汇来描述此类事件：医闹，即“医疗纠纷”。2004年至2016年间，此类纠纷的庭审案件数量从8854例升至21480例，但只有一小部分案件审判能深入开展。2016年，国家医疗与家庭计划委员会表示他们已经调解了六万多例医疗纠纷事件。
The problem of yinao has become so acute that, on March 1st, Shanghai became the first city to start a blacklist of people / deemed to have engaged in banned behaviour in medical facilities. As well as facing criminal penalties, they can be barred from holding public-sector jobs and denied access to outpatient services under the social-credit system, /in which bad behaviour can mean loss of rights and privileges.
医闹问题已经变得十分尖锐。3月1日，上海成为首座发布医闹黑名单的城市。一旦被列为黑名单，除了要面临刑事处罚外，还会被限制担任公共部门的工作，而且根据社会信用体系，将无法享受到门诊服务。这意味着，医闹行为会使人丧失权利和特权。
These measures build on a national law that came into effect last June. It is the first to specify that citizens have a right to “basic health-care services” provided by the state. It also bans them from attacking medical staff. In July Beijing’s city government adopted its own guidelines for hospital security, recommending checks at entrances and surveillance cameras inside. On April 15th Beijing’s health commission said that 86 hospitals had installed facial-recognition systems.
这些措施基于去年六月起生效的国家法。其首次强调了公民有权享受国家提供的“基本医疗服务”。与此同时，禁止公民攻击医务人员。七月，北京市政府实施本市医院安检制度，建议医院入口进行安检，以及在医院内安装监控摄像头。四月十五日，北京卫健委表示，已经有86家医院安装了面部识别系统。
China’s doctors have long worried about violence. In 2015 600,000 physicians signed a petition calling for an end to such assaults. A survey in 2019 found that 85% of doctors had encountered violence at work. Officials have hailed medical staff as heroes during the covid-19 pandemic, but at the height of the outbreak last year there were several reports of patients with the disease assaulting doctors.
中国医生长久以来都受暴力问题困扰。2015年，60万名外科医生签署了一份请愿书，呼吁结束医闹局面。2019年的一项调查发现，中国85%的医生曾在工作中遭遇过暴力。在新冠疫情期间，官方将医务人员赞誉为英雄。然而就在去年疫情最为严重的时候，仍出现过几起新冠患者袭击医生的报告。
Much of the anger originates in the 1980s, when reform began on / the free, state-funded health-care system. Hospitals, starved of government funds, began charging patients for treatment, and often resorted to overprescribing. Many ordinary people were unable to pay. This has created a “generalised sense of distrust” towards the medical profession, says Cheris Chan of the University of Hong Kong.
对医生的愤怒主要源于二十世纪八十年代。当时政府开始对免费的、由政府出资的医疗系统进行改革。由于缺乏政府拨款，医院开始向病人收取治疗费用，并且通常会开出过多的药物。许多老的百姓都看不起病。香港大学的Cheris Chan认为，这一局面导致了人们对医疗人员“普遍不信任”。
Even though the government initiated further reforms in 2009, under which nearly everyone is now covered by some form of basic health insurance, the quality of care in rural areas is still poor. So people go straight to large city hospitals, many of which sell tickets for consultations that touts buy up and resell for profit.
“尽管政府在2009年深化医疗体制改革，使得基本医疗保险几乎覆盖了所有人，但农村地区的医疗水平仍然很差。因此，人们会直接去往大城市的医院看病，许多大城市医院需要挂号会诊，而票贩子会把号挂满，再高价重新卖出去以谋取利润。
Fully 36% of spending on health care in China comes from patients,/ compared with 14% in the OECD, a club mostly of rich countries. The insurance system gives hospitals an incentive to treat out-of-province patients, since they must pay upfront. And China still has only two doctors per 1,000 people, compared with 3.5 on average across the OECD. Most are poorly paid.
相比于主要成员都是发达国家的经合组织，中国有整整36%的医疗费用来源于患者。医保体系要求医院必须将拨款用尽，这一政策激励了医院收治外省患者。然而，相比于经合组织成员国每3到4个人就有一个医生收治的空余，中国每两个医生就要收治1000人。
Medical scandals further undermine confidence. A well-known case in 2018 involved hundreds of thousands of children receiving faulty vaccines after the manufacturer fabricated inspection records. In February this year 70 people were arrested for making fake covid-19 vaccines.
医疗丑闻进一步降低了人们对其信心。2018年发生了一件臭名昭著的案件，由于制造商伪造检查记录，数十万儿童接种了假疫苗。而今年二月，70人因生产假新冠疫苗遭到逮捕。
Tougher regulations to protect doctors from angry patients do not seem to be working. Since the new laws were introduced in Beijing / more than 180,000 prohibited items such as knives have been seized at hospital entrances. With covid-19 under control, people are going back to hospitals. This could cause violence to rise again. Until the government deals with underpaid doctors and overstretched hospitals, it is likely to continue.
为保护医生免受暴怒的病人攻击而加强的法规似乎并没有起到什么作用。自北京实施新法后，医院入口检查处已经收缴了18万份诸如小刀之类的违禁品。由于疫情得到控制，人们正重返医院。这可能导致医闹死灰复燃。在政府解决好医生收入过低以及医院过度扩张的问题之前，医闹事件仍可能继续发生。
•词/组
keep 总是/时有发生
bring more stories 有更多的事情发生
have a word for 有…词汇用以描述
deem to 认为；视作
Be barred from 受限；被禁止
hail ... as 赞誉某人为
starve of 缺乏
ticket for consultation 挂号票
*原文来源：经济学人双语精读
