Chapter 1007 The Current State of Healthcare Is Worrying
After listening to the nurse’s explanation, Fang Qiu didn’t hesitate. He stood up and bowed low to Director Lin.
“What are you doing?” Seeing this, the director went forward in a panic and quickly helped Fang Qiu up, saying, “I’m not only the director of a Chinese Medicine Hospital but also the director of Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital. I should be responsible for all the patients here. It’s my job to do all these things. I should really thank you for coming all the way here to help me and the patients.”
“I’m a Chinese Medicine pract.i.tioner,” Fang Qiu said to the director and then added, “Director Lin, I’ve decided to stay for another three days. Please inform the patients to come over. I hope I can try my best to help.”
“Really?” Director Lin was extremely surprised.
The nurse at the side also rubbed her misty eyes and smiled.
“Yes,” answered Fang Qiu with certainty.
Director Lin said in excitement, “Okay. You should get some rest. You can rest for at least half a day before you see the patients. You’ve been seeing patients for a day and a night. We must make sure you have enough rest.”
“Okay.” Fang Qiu nodded in agreement.
“Xiaoliu, you can get off work. Go back home and have a good rest,” the director said to the nurse and then added, “Don’t tell anyone that Fang Qiu will stay for another three days for now. I have other arrangements.”
“Okay.” The nurse nodded and left.
“Let’s go, Dr. Fang. I’ll take you to a room to have a rest.” As they spoke, they walked out of the consulting room and headed for the private room that they had prepared for Fang Qiu in advance.
As they arrived, Fang Qiu found that although the room was small, it was well-equipped. There was a sofa, a tea table, a television, and a bed.
“Director,” sitting down on the sofa in the room, Fang Qiu asked, “why are there so many patients with serious diseases here? Don’t you have doctors here? I can tell that many of those patients only got the serious diseases because they didn’t get the treatment on time.”
“Alas…” Director Lin sighed deeply and said in a very heavy tone, “Yes, we are short of doctors. In some places, there is only one small clinic within nearly 10 miles, so many people’s treatment has been delayed. Unless they are so sick that they can’t stand it anymore, they won’t go to the city. After all, in this region, all the roads are nearly mountain roads. It takes a lot of time to go to the city. And they also need to spend a lot of money, so many patients don’t like to come. They can’t even afford it. The essence of this problem is that the doctors are not enough.”
Fang Qiu nodded and said, “If there were a doctor in every village and every town, the minor illnesses might not turn into serious ones. And there wouldn’t be so many patients with serious diseases. Didn’t you go to find some doctors?”
“It’s useless even if we find them,” Director Lin said with a wry smile, “the restrictions on the Medical Qualification Certificate are very strict. After all, it’s a matter of life and death. We can’t allow any mistakes. Besides, although the national subsidy and the aid of poverty alleviation have been issued, the living conditions here are too harsh. Who is willing to come here?”
Fang Qiu fell silent.
Although he didn’t see the mountain roads mentioned by the director in person, he could tell that the living conditions in this place were indeed too harsh from the city construction and the patients he saw yesterday.
Even Lin Chao, the director of the munic.i.p.al Chinese Medicine Hospital, was wearing a suit with a style of the 1990s. It could be imagined how harsh the conditions here were.
“I want to discuss something with you,” said Director Lin.
“What is it?” Fang Qiu nodded.
“If you’re going to stay for three more days, I hope you can spare one day to treat other patients with serious diseases. There are not many of them left. One day should be enough.”
Speaking of this, Director Lin paused and said, “I’ll announce to the public that you only see patients in our hospital for two days.”
“Okay.” Fang Qiu nodded at once.
He also knew that he needed to get his priorities right.
Since he was about to see patients, those who had serious diseases should be given priority.
“Then you take a rest first. I’ll arrange it now.” As he spoke, the director stood up and left.
Fang Qiu was the only one left in the room.
He pondered for a while and then took out his cell phone to call Li Ji.
“h.e.l.lo?” When the phone was connected, Li Ji’s voice came. He asked, “What’s the matter? Did something happen?”
“I want to ask you if you can help me get an investigation report,” said Fang Qiu.
“Investigation report?” Li Ji was stunned and said, “There are various kinds of investigation reports. Whether you can get it or not depends on the type of investigation report you want.”
“I want an investigation report related to all the remote mountainous areas in Huaxia, which mainly focuses on medicine. It’s best to count how many doctors are needed in these remote mountainous areas. If you can do it, please try to make it as detailed as possible,” said Fang Qiu.
“No problem.” Li Ji immediately nodded and said, “The higher-ups have always paid special attention to the medical conditions and medical personnel in the poor mountainous area. People have been doing research on this field. It won’t be a problem to get such a report. However, although I know what you want to do and these materials are not confidential, you have to give me a reason why you need this, right?”
“Get me the report first, and then I will decide what to do,” said Fang Qiu.
“Okay.” Li Ji nodded and said, “I trust you. The higher-ups also trust you.”
He hung up the phone after he finished speaking.
Fang Qiu walked to the bed in the room and sat down, closing his eyes to have a rest.
There were still three days left, so he had to adjust his state to the best.
Fortunately, he was a martial arts pract.i.tioner. If he were an ordinary man, it would be impossible for him to hold on.
He rested until two o’clock in the afternoon.
When it was time to officially start work in the Chinese Medicine Hospital, Fang Qiu got up and came out when he heard some sounds outside the door.
He then found that there was a young nurse guarding at the door.
“Do people in the hospital start working?” Asked Fang Qiu.
The young nurse said timidly, “They’re already at work. Your consulting room is ready, but the director asked me not to disturb you. He said that you had been working for a day and a night, so he wants you to rest for a while.”
“It’s okay. I’ve already got enough rest.” Fang Qiu smiled slightly and said, “Let’s go.”
After saying that, Fang Qiu returned to the consulting room and continued to see patients.
When he was back in the consulting room, Fang Qiu found that this Chinese Medicine Hospital was already packed with people unknowingly.
When Director Lin spread the news that Fang Qiu was going to see patients in the Chinese Medicine Hospital for two days, it suddenly caused a sensation in this third-tier city.
Everyone heard of Fang Qiu.
However, no one expected that Fang Qiu would come to Lin Zhai.
Now, as soon as people heard the news, countless people rushed to the Chinese Medicine Hospital in the first place.
In the hospital, Fang Qiu also officially started doing consultations.
The first patient was the patient who got serious flu, who was mentioned on the news.
After examining the patient, Fang Qiu found that it was not as serious as he thought. It was merely a simple seasonal flu, so he immediately prescribed some medicine for the patient.
Then, he saw more than ten patients in a row, all of whom suffered from seasonal flu.
When he discovered this situation, Fang Qiu directly wrote down a prescription that was specifically used to treat seasonal flu and asked the nurse to give it to the director so as to ask him to publicize it.
After receiving the prescription, the director was overjoyed and immediately began to publicize it.
Fang Qiu sighed with emotion in his heart.
“How can a simple small disease develop into flu? The medical and health conditions here are really insufficient. There are so many doctors in big cities, but few doctors want to come to the small city.”
The more Fang Qiu thought about it, the more he wanted to sigh.
While Fang Qiu was seeing patients, the director quickly spread the prescription given by him. Although people didn’t know who wrote this prescription, those who tried it felt that it was particularly effective. Hence, people tried to cure the flu according to this prescription.
Of course, everyone was silently thanking the people who gave out the prescription.
In the consulting room, Fang Qiu kept seeing patients for two days consecutively. After he finished seeing all the patients, another group of patients with serious diseases came. It took him another day to see all the patients with serious diseases.
Seeing the second group of patients with serious diseases, Fang Qiu felt heartbroken.
It was the same as three days ago.
He found that numerous patients got serious diseases because they didn’t get the treatment on time. Originally, their diseases didn’t have to become so severe.
After seeing all the patients, Fang Qiu returned to the private room to have a rest and found that the investigation report he asked for had already been sent by Li Ji a day ago. He immediately checked his email and read the report carefully.
“According to Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Health Undertakings of our country, there is a total of 6.203 million health professionals in the country by the end of last year.
“Among them, people working in hospitals at all levels account for 3.706 million of the number while there are less than 2 million people working in community health service stations and town clinics. There are only about 20,000 hospitals in the whole country, but the total number of community health service stations and town clinics exceeds 70,000.
“The data also shows that there is a shortage of medical staff in the community and town clinics. What’s more urgent is that there is a shortage of general pract.i.tioners in the countryside.”
Fang Qiu knew that the general pract.i.tioners here referred to the doctors that could deal with common diseases, frequently-occurring diseases, and general emergency cases in the outpatient clinics. This kind of doctor was extremely important to patients in the countryside.
“According to the ideal ratio, there should at least be 600,000 general pract.i.tioners in the country. But there are only 78,000 in our country. And these people’s medical skills are worrying!”
Fang Qiu fell silent after reading the investigation report.
He didn’t expect that there was actually such a huge gap!
There was a lack of 600, 000 general pract.i.tioners.
It seemed that apart from Lin Zhai, there were many other places in the country that was as miserable as Lin Zhai.
As he was constantly thinking about it, Fang Qiu frowned more deeply.
As he was pondering, Fang Qiu took out his phone and called Chen Yinsheng.
“h.e.l.lo?” When the phone was connected, Chen Yinsheng’s voice came.
“Vice President,” Fang Qiu called him respectfully and then said, “are there any statistics about the employment condition of graduates of major TCM colleges in our school?”
Chen Yinsheng asked, “The Ministry of Education will collect the information every year. Do you want these statistics?”
He knew that Fang Qiu must want to do something good with the data, so he didn’t ask for the reason why he needed it.
“Yes, if possible, please send a copy to me,” said Fang Qiu.
“Okay, I’ll find it for you now. I’ll send it to you in five minutes,” Chen Yinsheng answered and hung up the phone.