China has outlawed public mourning in hospitals in an attempt to stem a rising trend of protests against medical malpractice.
New regulations explicitly ban relatives of recently-deceased patients from conducting a range of traditional mourning rituals on hospital grounds.
Banned activities include displaying funeral wreaths, setting up altars, and burning offerings such as incense or paper money.
A joint statement issued April 30 by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Public Security laid out the new rules in a document addressing questions of hospital safety. The ban on public mourning was one of several new policies aimed at cracking down on protests by patients’ disgruntled relatives.
In recent years, China has seen an increase in occasionally violent hospital protests, as families seek redress for relatives who have died while receiving medical treatment.
Most recently, a doctor was killed and three other people injured by the disgruntled relative of a former patient in the northern city of Harbin this past April. Similar murders have occurred in recent years, while many more have been injured in riots sometimes staged by hired thugs.
Last August, a crowd of over one hundred people stormed a hospital in Nanchang in southern Jiangxi province, fighting hospital workers with pitchforks and long sticks.
Other protests are less violent, relying on public mourning to draw attention and disrupt hospitals’ normal operation.
The Beijing Times reported earlier this month that over 73 percent of Chinese hospitals have experienced threats, harassment, or beatings of staff members, and over 59 percent have had normal operation disrupted by actions taken by disgruntled relatives of former patients.
The statistics were gathered in a survey of 270 hospitals across China conducted by the China Institute for Hospital Management.
The survey also reported that 61 percent of hospitals have had families of deceased patients conduct mourning rituals on hospital grounds.
The government’s new directive promised that anyone who participates in public mourning on hospital grounds will be punished according to China’s criminal code. Exact penalties were not specified.
The directive also called for hospitals to assist patients and their relatives in filing complaints through regular channels by setting up complaint desks and posting telephone numbers of medical dispute mediators.
