Guangdong reports success in resolving hospital disputes

The Guangdong Hexie Medical Dispute Mediation Committee, a nonprofit non-governmental organization, has solved 2,866 disputes and claimed total compensation of 125 million yuan ($20.3 million) for patients in the three years since its establishment.

Committee Director Wang Hui provided the figures from his work report at a news conference on Tuesday.

The committee has become the major mediator of medical disputes in Guangdong province, resolving 90 percent of the cases handled by all governmental and non-governmental mediation committees from January to May.

"There are more than 3,000 medical-dispute mediation committees in China, and our committee is the only one that focuses on stopping and preventing medical disputes from worsening and becoming violent medical disturbances," Wang said.

"Our goal is to ensure that hospitals are safe places and at the same time seeing that patients receive just and fair treatment for medical disputes."

The mediators from Wang's committee have answered urgent calls to stop violent medical disturbances at the scene in 767 cases in the past three years, and successfully persuaded patients to turn to the law in almost 90 percent of these cases, according to the work report.

Wu Bing, 60, has worked at the committee as a mediator for three years since her retirement.

"Winning patients' trust in us, getting them to see that we have their interests at heart, is the key to solving medical disputes," Wu said.

She recalled that she once calmed down a patient by giving him a cup of hot water after the man had tried to stab a doctor and was detained by police.

Wang, the committee director, pointed out hospital and government misconduct that the mediators in his committee have seen. For example, some hospitals bypass mediation committees and force patients to go through exhausting lawsuits. In addition, police in some jurisdictions condone hospital troublemakers, Wang said.

"Some local governments hold the wrong opinion that stability is most important, so hospitals should satisfy hospital violators' needs and give them money," he said, adding that rural doctors especially lack protection.

Wang also called for financial support from the provincial government.

"The government can set the standard amount of a subsidy for a solved case and give us a stipend every time we solve a case," he said.