The public security bureau of Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, halted the practice of installing police officers as vice-presidents of 27 local hospitals on July 5, three days after the decision was made, Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Xinhua said many of the police officers hadn't even gone to the hospitals before the practice was called off.

Shenyang health bureau and public security bureau announced at a joint press conference on July 2 that installing police officers as vice-presidents was intended to "increase the sense of security of both the hospital staff and patients."

The move of using police as hospital officials was also aimed to minimize potential conflicts between hospital staff and patients, which had long been a headache for hospitals, with some even suffering from "professional medical trouble makers" who profited from tangling with the hospitals, according to Pei Qingshuang, deputy head of Shenyang's health bureau.

But the public didn't buy the idea of having police work in hospitals as concerns mounted that using police as hospital officials is an obvious abuse of public power.

Xinhua cited a Shenyang government official surnamed Zhang as saying maintaining social security is the police’s obligation, and the move of installing police officers as hospital vice-presidents is beyond their power.

A lawyer surnamed Wu said the police's obligation is not to just protect the hospitals, and they should not be biased to any side in a conflict.

Experts also said China's police law requires police not to be involved in business activities that make money or be hired by any person and organization.

Zhang Sining, a professor at Liaoning Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, whose father was a police officer, said installing police officers as hospital vice-presidents would definitely undermine the public's impression of public power.

Zhang said hospitals were mainly to blame for the conflicts between their staff and patients because if there were no medical accidents that cause people to be disabled or even die, no one would start a conflict with the hospital. And if there were no conflicts, there would be no such persons as "professional medical trouble makers" either, she added.

Experts said hospitals should use better internal management to solve conflicts rather than depend on others, and the police bureau as a law enforcement department should not become a tool of a certain organization.

Xinhua cited an unnamed police officer familiar with the matter as saying he has been under great pressure for the past several days. To answer the public, the public security bureau finally decided on July 5 to no longer install police officers as hospital vice-presidents.

By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)