The poor health of paediatrics in China

In the last twenty years, the deterioration of doctor-patient relationship has undermined China's ambitious health-care reform, featured with lots of medical disputes and violence against medical staffs. [1, 2] Fortunately, according to the recent report by the Chinese National Health Commission, medical disputes and related crimes in China are now under control, with major decrease of 20.1% and 41.1%, respectively, during the past five years. [3] We studied and summarized the causes for such an encouraging outcome.

Frpm the perspective of prevention, to rebuild a patient-oriented medical services is essential. Firstly, medical staff are paying more attention to the way and appropriateness of efficient doctor-patient communication by detailing the patients' medical condition, treatment risks and outcome, alternative therapy and estimated cost of treatment. Secondly, doctors are constantly trained to improve the level of medical proficiency, the ability to recognize imminent critical situation, and the awareness of humanistic care towards patients. Thirdly, the perfection of medical insurance system for patients is also playing an important role in the drop in these disputes and related crimes.

And for settlement, the cornerstone lies in the utilization of people's mediation. It is an effective, convenient and free legal system with Chinese characteristics, which has become the main channel in tackling various disputes across China. [4] More than 60% of medical disputes are resolved by this mediation annually, with an overall successful rate of over 85%. [3] And also, a one-stop disputes handling service system has been established, by which patients can avoid shuttling back and forth between different departments.

With persistent and effective measures and prompt action, we believe China will gradually rebuild a harmonious medical environment for both doctors and patients in the near future.

We declare no competing interests.

References:
1. Liu Yue, Song Rui, Hou Peter C, Zhang Li, Zhang Yin. The poor health of paediatrics in China. BMJ. 2018; 361 :k2567
2. Zhao L, Zhang X-Y, Bai G-Y, Wang Y-G. Violence against doctors in China. The Lancet. 2014;384(9945):744.
3. Beijing Youth Daily. Medical disputes dropped significantly for 20.1% in the past five years. http://epaper.ynet.com/html/2018-09/09/content_302545.htm?div=-1. in Chinese
4. Chinese National Radio. Ministry of Justice: The National People's Mediation Organization mediated more than 9 million disputes of various types each year. http://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20180427/t20180427_524214495.shtml. in Chinese