SHANGHAI: A hospital in this city will have policemen stationed in and around its premises to prevent disputes between patients' relatives and friends and its staff from turning violent.

The policemen will train the hospital guards to quell violence, too, according to the agreement Shanghai Minhang District Central Hospital is to sign with Xinzhuang police station today.

The move has been necessitated because of the rising number of violent incidents between hospital staff and patients, relatives and friends.

With more land being developed, Minhang District near Shanghai's downtown area is attracting more and more people. That has swelled the number of outpatients, too.

Crimes such as thefts and attacks have been growing in the hospital, with patients or their relatives and/or friends injuring 15 doctors and nurses last year alone.

An orthopaedist, surnamed Zhong, said yesterday that disputes between the hospital and patients often disturb their work. Some patients and their families create trouble after a drinking bout.

The hospital began seeking police help at the end of last year. And apart from getting a police pickets, the hospital has also installed more than 100 surveillance cameras with the help of the police station. The recordings are expected to serve as evidence.

Reasoning first

Police station director Zhang Zhihua said they would try to reason both with the patient and the doctors once a dispute breaks out, and stop such arguments from turning violent.

Shanghai Minhang District Central Hospital is not the only one to have witnessed disputes, often because patients and their relatives think the medical fees have been inflated.

Several other hospitals have installed surveillance cameras and alert systems. A hospital in Shenzhen asked its doctors and nurses to wear helmets in December after the family of a patient who died attacked them. Some other hospitals have also sought local police stations' help.

But hospitals don't always seem to be right. On November 20, 2006, 31-year-old Wang Hongyan went to Shanghai Consonancy Hospital and was diagnosed as being infertile. The corrective treatment and surgery she received on a single day cost her almost 40,000 yuan ($5,130).

Then there was the case of a pregnant woman who again was diagnosed as infertile by Changjiang Hospital doctors.

Si Weijiang, a Shanghai lawyer, said measures like having policemen might not prevent violent disputes. The presence of police will put patients' parties at a disadvantage.

"Patients (or their relatives and friends) get violent only when they have no other way to settle a dispute. And patients don't trust doctors because for many hospitals and doctors making money is the most important thing."

(China Daily 01/24/2007 page5)