"Home for Dinner!" Your Mother Said So

"Liu Xuezhou, Home For Dinner!", your mother said so. Millions of Chinese netizens use their unique way to express their anger towards the director of the Henan Provincial Health Department, Liu Xuezhou. Actually, it was pointed out that the decision was made at a higher level by the deputy governor of Henan, Mr. Song Xuantao.

Chinese Internet Mob stormed the official website of the Henan Health Department, and left messages asking the director to go home for dinner after the department censured the No. 1 hospital of Zhengzhou University for helping a farm worker in diagnose of his occupational disease. The doctor who performed the surgery was suspended for one year and the president of the hospital was fired.

Dr. Cheng Zhe was suspended for one year because she wrote the diagnose. When interviewed by news media, she asked, if I wrote I didn't find anything after the surgery, or put something else on the diagnose (the Health Department mandated to write T.B. in place of black lung), that would have crossed the bottom line of a medical practitioner.

A doctor who prefers not to reveal his identity argued that doctors had a moral responsibility and ethics obligation to inform the patient the disease.

The provincial Health Department of Henan stated only officially designated agencies were allowed to make such diagnose.

News media revealed that 53 more workers were diagnosed with black lung in a routine physical examination in 2007, but they were never notified. Henan Health Department's move was trying to silence the workers.

A Shangdong based newspaper suggested the Henan Health Department should have opened up its check to let people see whether its blood is still red.

An anonymous lawyer commented that the university hospital did not intend to challenge the official designated occupational disease center, but only trying to find the cause of the disease of one of its patients. The patient is entitled to the information on his disease, and the doctor has no legal reason to withheld it.

Within one day of learning the punishment on the university hospital, 486 news media picked up the story and unanimously harshly criticized the Hanan government. On one web site, more than 30,000 readers commented on the news with angry cursing on Henan officials. A Shanghai based newspaper ran an editorial titled 'It Is an Honor to be Punished by Henan Officials'.

The most authoritative voice comes from the People's Daily, which published a commentary stating that what Henan government did in name of order would not help in upholding the dignity of order.