The Southern Metropolis Daily reports two doctors from the Yulin maternal and child care service center have stated that doctors, nurses, and their families have been ordered to refrain from eating dog meat in public.

However, a deputy director of the center disputed the claims, saying there has been no such order.

READ: Shocking: The Brazen Capture of a Dog in Broad Daylight in Guangdong

The report did not say why health care professionals have been singled out, nor did it say if other professional fields are also included in the order.

The Yulin dog eating festival is an annual event that has attracted criticism and protests from animal activists. An estimated 10,000 dogs were consumed at the festival last year, and organizers are gearing up for this year’s festival on June 21.

Clashes between protestors and Yulin residents have already begun despite local efforts to minimize the controversy by removing the character “dog” from all Yulin restaurant signs and menus.

Related:

• Another Brutal Dog Killing, This Time at a Shelter in Hangzhou
• Dog Beaten to Death in Beijing in Front of Foreign Owner
• Dogs Move From the Dinner Plate to the Perfect Companion
• Drunk Woman Passes Out in the Street, Pet Dogs Protect Her

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A story of an unscrupulous abortion surgeon in Dongguan which appeared in yesterday’s Guangzhou Daily showed how corrupt and costly parts of this industry are.

On Monday afternoon (October 14) Wu Zhaoqun, 18, went to the Yinshan Clinic in Dongguan’s Qingxi Town to get an abortion. Before the surgery, the price of 460 yuan was agreed upon. However, three minutes into the operation, the surgeon increased the cost way up to 7,700 yuan and refused to complete it until she finished.

Wu and her boyfriend Zhang Leiqi, 21, who have just started their working lives, cannot afford that sort of money. She was left bleeding on the table for three hours until Zhang negotiated the price down to 4,400 yuan and the operation was completed.

The Qingxi Ministry of Health is investigating the incident, and a representative of the clinic has put it down to the individual doctor having a poor attitude or failing to communicate clearly.

Zhang explained that his girlfriend turned out to have a cervical cyst that needed to be dealt with before the operation. However, there is no logical reason why the cost would multiply to such an extent. His girlfriend had to endure three hours of excruciating pain during the subsequent standoff and it could have been fatal.

Now that it has appeared in a newspaper, the issue could go all the way up to provincial-level authorities and the clinic could lose its license.

This is just the latest scandal in a country in which relying on medical professionals can be a scary experience. Acts of violence, including murder, by patients against doctors are common. Last year, a People’s Daily survey showed that the majority of netizens supported these acts of violence.

Another survey conducted last year by a group of students at Hunan Normal University found that 61% of doctors in China hated their jobs, so the temptation to be corrupt can be overwhelming.

China is not necessarily a society in which mothers want their children to grow up to be doctors

Six people have been detained on suspicion of stealing an estimated total of 100,000 RMB from various hospitals in Shenzhen over a period of months, according to Shenzhen Evening Post.

Last month, a man named Mr Yang took his son to Shenzhen Children’s Hospital for a check-up. After registering and joining the queue, he noticed his wallet was missing. He called the police immediately. At Lianhua Police Station in Futian District, officers checked the security camera footage at the hospital and saw six people who surrounded Yang, all of whom appeared to be involved in the robbery.

A further investigation, involving much security camera footage, showed that the six people would frequently take the subway from Buji Metro Station to hospitals in Luohu and Futian Districts. These also included Shenzhen Maternity Hospital and Shenzhen People’s Hospital. On the afternoon of June 9, police arrested one suspect named Mou, and later arrested the other five. Police concluded that the suspects chose to target hospitals because hospitals tended to be crowded, so it was easy to get lost. Moreover, people tended to be preoccupied while in hospital, and would carry large sums of money to pay for medical fees.

The suspects are all related and include a husband and wife and a brother and sister. The investigation is ongoing.

Sixteen managerial staff at 13 Shenzhen hospitals are under investigation for accepting bribes, according to Hexun News. Among the suspects are nine people who hold the role of president or vice-president of their hospitals, and seven who are heads of administrative departments. The city’s procuratorate issued arrest warrants for the sixteen on June 5 after receiving tip-offs and conducting an investigation.

The suspects include the president of Henggang People’s Hospital Kong Deqi, the secretary of Pingshan New Zone People’s Hospital Cai Junming. Other suspects include a worker at No. 6 People’s Hospital and a departmental head at Shenzhen Maternity Hospital. When Kong was arrested for investigation on June 5, many police cars showed up at the hospital and many of his staff watched as he was taken in to the police car. At 5 p.m. on the same day, a person involved with the investigation went to Kong’s office on the seventh floor of the hospital to announce that Kong would return after the matter had been resolved.

According to witnesses, Kong returned to the hospital at 6.30 pm on the same day in his Audi A6. Many other staff at the hospital are expected to be questioned as part of the investigation, which is one of the largest of its kind in the city’s history.

The health care system is widely criticized in China. Earlier this year, the majority of respondents to a survey cheered the murder of a doctor. Netizens have reacted angrily to the news of the arrests. Sina Weibo user Heshihong cfn described Shenzhen as a paradise of bribery. Another, Coffee Sister Sunny, opined that China does not have a place in which bribery is not rife.

It’s said that the couple took their two daughters to the street out of desperation, to appeal to the public’s help in paying off a remaining 1,500 RMB in hospital bills for their third child, a son born just two months ago.

No story is complete these days without an online rumor counterpart; in its report on the protest, Yangcheng Evening News quotes one netizen as having written:

“I heard from a motortaxi driver that the couple are from out of province and, already with two daughters, gave birth to a boy at a hospital here not long ago. They say the baby was swapped with another, or it was abducted or something…they couldn’t sue the hospital, so they all went naked to protest outside the police station and demand action be taken. The motortaxi driver wouldn’t stop cursing out the parents, saying they shouldn’t have brought the two girls along, that this sort of thing will damage a kid.”

Other netizens expressed sympathy for the family.

A reporter for the newspaper called up a local official in Dianbai who confirmed that the nude protest had taken place, but denied the rumor that the couple had lost their son and then found doors shut in their faces:

“They took their sick son to go to the Dianbai county Maternity and Child Care Hospital (MCCH), where they ended up spending quite a bit on treatments. They couldn’t afford to pay their bills in full, so they took their two daughters to go naked through the streets. They walked from the local Public Security Bureau to Dongyang street, ending at the busy Zhongxintai area, where they attracted many bystanders.”

On Monday this week, one netizen posted details regarding the couple allegedly passed on by police to a local online forum, revealing that both the man, 50-year-old Zhang and his 37-year-old wife were both from Henan province. The police information confirmed that they have 3 kids. Three months ago, Zhang began a job recycling waste in Dianbai along with his family. A month ago, their newborn son took ill and was kept in hospital up until last Sunday, when Zhang, his wife and two daughters, decided to go protest naked as a way to obtain the 1,500 RMB needed for outstanding hospital bills.

That post ended with the claim that Dianbai MCCH has decided to waive the remaining fees and let the Zhangs take their son home.