China Sacks Hospital Officials For Taking Selfies In Operating Room

Chinese health authorities put a hospital
president on probation and fired three
others following public outrage over
photos posted online of smiling medical
staff posing with patients in the middle of
surgery.
The photos were taken in August at
Fengcheng Hospital in the north-central
city of Xi’an and leaked on social media
over the weekend.
Online commentators criticized medical
staff for being unprofessional and
disrespectful of patients, while others
defended the photos, saying they were
intended to be private and were taken at
the end of surgical procedures.
The Xi’an Bureau of Public Health, which
handed out the punishment, said in a
statement on Sunday that the staff took
the photos to memorialize the operating
room, which was to be relocated.
Nevertheless, the bureau said it requested
everyone involved in the photo scandal to
offer self-critiques.
The bureau also put the hospital
president probation for one year and fired
a deputy president, the head nurse and the
person in charge of anesthetics.
Tensions have run high between health
workers and patients in China.
Patients often complain about poor medical
services and high costs, especially the
need to bribe doctors and nurses in
exchange for competent services.
Chinese health workers say they are
overworked and underpaid.