Waiting All Night Outside A Hospital Hoping To See A Doctor – digg china

On a very normal night, a reporter saw a lot of people waiting outside the Xiangya Hospital. They had been waiting all night long, just for a “passport” to the doctors. The following contains her observations and opinions, plus some of her photos.

From NetEase:

Everyday, there are always a lot of people waiting outside the Xiangya Hospital. The waiting is just for the "passport" to the doctors.

At 5:30, the gate finally gave way and the crowd rushed into the hospital. Yang’s husband rushed to the registration window and he was the third one in line. It was a sign of victory! [Meanwhile, Yang Yan was submerged in the crowd. Numerous legs stepped on her, so her shoulder fractured. Yang's night of waiting was all for nothing.] Yang walked to her husband, crying:”I got a fracture.” Yang’s husband had to withdraw from the line.  As a result, Yang did not get her mother and her husband’s “passport.” Instead, Yang was sent into the emergency room. When Yang and her husband left the line, a few hundred pairs of eyes looked at them, and hundreds of expressions were solidified there. Except for the babies sleeping on their mothers’ backs, everybody’s expressions were either sadness or joy.

I am aware of why people wanted to get close to the gate, why they waited on the ice-cold floor, why they carried their bleary-eyed babies in the cold wind. For all the scalpers, getting a treatment number is just a business, but for the patients and the weak, it is stubborn self-preservation. I observed the hospital for 5 nights, countless faces passed by in front of my camera, from the guarded, to the anxious, to relaxed and finally to numb because they did not have any more time to focus on me. They were concerned only with the result of a night of waiting.

There was a baby asleep on her mom's back.

There was a light rain outside. People were queued in the freezing cold, waiting for the hospital open.

Outside the hospital, Mr Huang was covering his 18-year-old son with a blanket. His son was caught up in a pyramid scheme in Guangdong province. In order to escape, he jumped off a building.

At 5:30 am, the door was opened. As if it was the 100 meter sprint, people rushed to the outpatient hall after the starting gun rang.

31-year-old Yang Yan looked at her husband aggrievedly. She had been waiting since 2 am, but she fell down in the crowd, and was stepped on by a lot of people. She was waiting to register her mother and husband. But she went to the emergency room because she broke her shoulder.

Every night, there are countless waiting outside the Xiangya Hospital. It is only for one purpose: meeting a doctor.

Two tired people were squatting on the ground, helplessly.

In the Xiangya Hospital, there was a fight between two guys because one of them jumped the queue. This kind thing happens every day in the hospital.

Comments from NetEase:

网易浙江杭州网友：

Everybody knows that Xiangya is a very good hospital, and people want to go to good hospitals. This hospital charges reasonable prices, and my brother goes to this hospital every time when he is sick. In order to make more money, some hospitals ask people to do a lot of unnecessary tests. A lot of people are from small villages, so they don’t know the dark secret. Thousands of RMB is just wasted on the tests.

网易江苏盐城网友：

This phenomena exists not only in Changshao, but also in Shanghai and other places. Why is it so hard to see a doctor in China?!

网易火星网友［可悲］：

Once again, a test of the Chinese conscience and humanity. How sad, indeed! What I see in the current society: money comes first and then life. What will happen next?

网易中国网友：

My poor compatriots!

网易天津网友：

Those stupid guys that all went to the same hospital! You deserve it!

网易广东湛江网友：

We need more private hospitals. Improvement comes with competition. Get more university students trained to be doctors and send them to hospitals. Otherwise, nothing will change.

网易中国网友：

As a doctor, I am very sad when I see this scene. Primary hospitals are breaking down, meanwhile, big hospitals have way too many people. I don’t understand. What’s wrong with Chinese people?

网易广东深圳网友：

There are a lot of scalpers in the queues. Hunan Television has reported this a million times. The tickets are in the hands of scalpers. They charge 200 kuai for each ticket. People who are really sick can’t beat those strong scalpers in a queue.

网易湖南株洲网友［呵呵］：

Doctors can do nothing about this, because they are not administrating the hospitals.

网易湖南长沙网友：

There are so many hospitals, but everybody wants to go to this hospital. Maybe it’s because people don’t trust the other hospitals.

网易广西柳州网友：

Fuck this. There are hospitals everywhere. Is this hospital really so good? Does Huatuo (a very famous doctor in ancient China) work for the hospital?

网易广东佛山网友：

Seeing a doctor is really difficult, expensive, and also annoying.

网易辽宁鞍山网友：

This is the great China.