ChinaA number of executives at a hospital in the Chinese city of Xi’an have been fired after they refused entry to a pregnant woman due to strict corona rules in China. For example, the woman was not allowed to enter the Gaoxin hospital just before her delivery because her negative corona test was four hours too old. While waiting outside, the woman began to bleed profusely. When she was admitted after two hours, her baby died in the hospital.
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The incident took place on the night of January 1. The woman shared her story on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. Her husband also recorded a video showing the woman waiting in the street while she lost a lot of blood.
On Wednesday, the Shaanxi Province Health Commission launched an investigation into the incident. The investigation showed that the miscarriage was a clear result of negligence. Three hospital managers have since been fired. Liu Shunzhi, the head of the commission, also received a warning from the Communist Party to prevent emergency malpractice.
In a statement, the hospital said it “did everything that needed to be done”.
Strict lockdown
The health commission orders Gaoxin Hospital in Xi’an, a city of 13 million, to apologize publicly for the incident. In addition, staff must ensure that from now on every patient has access to emergency care. Due to the Zero Covid policy, China has a lot fewer corona cases than other countries. Yet there is growing concern about the policy, which is causing a lot of chaos in several Chinese cities.
The Chinese cities of Yuzhou and Xi’an have been in strict lockdown for two weeks. As a result, people are obliged to stay at home and all social places and shops are closed. Public transport is also not available. Although the authorities hope to curb the number of corona infections, the consequences of the lockdown are being felt more and more, according to residents. For example, there is not only a question of postponed care, but there are also growing food shortages.
Heart attack
Residents seeking access to a hospital or any facility must be vaccinated against Covid-19 or have recently tested negative for the virus. In more and more cases, this strict rule means that patients do not receive the care they need. For example, the incident with the pregnant woman was not the first incident at the hospital in Xi’an. A man and his father, who suffered a heart attack, were previously sent away because they came from a region where many infections had been counted. After a long discussion, the heart patient was nevertheless admitted, but shortly afterwards he died in hospital.
More than 42,000 people have already been placed in quarantine camps in Xi’an. Since December 9, about 1,800 infections have been detected in the city.
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