
The symbol of Health-care: Star of Life
Life changes in a heartbeat. The life God give to us is precious and when our lifes are threaten, health-care providers or teams play a important role in saving our lifes. In China, health-care professionals always compared to angel, the emissary of God. So Chinese physicians alway are thinked to be honest and selfless.
But now, 21 century, 2012. The relationship between healt-care professionals and patients are terrible and tense. Here I can tell you that health-care providers in China are paid very very low compared to United States. The Chinese government is rich, but they pay very very low money to health-care system and professionals.
So what do physicians do under this situation? They find a way called “Paying the doctors via the medication”. For example, a Chinese physican’s wage is 10,000 RMB, about 5,000+ RMB comes from medical representative. How? If the physician prescribe a agent, the medical representative give 0.5 or 1 RMB to the physician as a reward. Of course this is not allowed by Chinese government and society. But the fact is that it is real, but not public, just in secret. So the physicians alway prescribe a lot of medications which are not necessary to the diseases status and patients. The more they prescribe, the more reward they get. So physicians in China is paid low by the government, so they have to get money via other ways. The main way is the reward from medical representative.
The Oath of Louis Lasagna, a modern version of the Hippocratic Oath.
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.
I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.