Mechanisms of Accountability for the Realization of the Right to Health in China

Qiu, Shengnan; Macnaughton, Gillian

The following case study illustrates how social accountability works in combination with professional accountability and judicial accountability. On finding that her colleagues were providing light quantum therapy by using unlicensed equipment on patients, which was harmful to their health, Dr. Chen wrote to the hospital's professional supervisory board. However, she did not get a satisfactory answer from the board; instead, she was dismissed from her position. She then wrote to the local professional supervisory office, but here too failed to get a satisfactory response. Next, she decided to turn to the judiciary. However, relevant regulations allow only patients and their families to sue a hospital for malpractice. 79 It thus became difficult for Dr. Chen to hold relevant duty-bearers to account. As a last resort, she decided to pretend to be a patient in order to expose the truth. Although she was a healthy person, the hospital still accepted her as a patient, immediately providing her with illegal treatment. Through her undercover action, Dr. Chen was finally able to collect evidence and file the case before a court. 80 Later, the media reported her story, which pressured the Shanghai Medicine Administration Office into initiating a special investigation on illegal treatments in all hospitals in Shanghai.