中西方醫生地位差距迥異
Roy Wang did not want to be a doctor but his grades were too low for engineering so his southern China university transferred him to a course for weaker students: medicine.
王大夫(Roy Wang)當年本不想當醫生，但他的高考分數沒有達到工程專業的錄取分數線，因此被他報考的那所華南大學調劑到醫學專業。醫學專業的錄取分數線較低。
In most western countries, medicine is a profession that guarantees prestige, high salaries – and the approval of parents who love to brag about “my child the doctor”.
在大多數西方國家，醫生這個職業意味着體面、高薪以及父母的認可——父母都喜歡炫耀說，“我的孩子是醫生”。
But in China, the reverse is true: doctors are ill-paid, overworked and maligned or even attacked by patients while many parents would prefer that they became bankers instead.
但在中國，情況正好相反：醫生工資不高、工作辛苦，還可能被病人辱罵甚至毆打。許多中國父母更希望自己的子女成爲銀行家。
Even Chinese doctors prefer their children not to follow them into the profession: according to a 2011 survey by the Chinese Medical Doctors’ Association, 78 per cent of respondents said they hoped their child would not don a white coat.
在中國，甚至連醫生也不願自己的子女繼承這個職業。2011年中國醫師協會(China Association of Medical Doctors)的一項調查表明，78%的受訪醫生不希望自己的孩子穿上白大褂。
Many of China’s less prestigious medical schools find it hard to recruit students to train as doctors and others find that students with lower scores on the national university entrance exam, or gaokao, use the lower requirements of some medical schools to gain entry to university, only to then transfer to faculties with higher earning potential.
中國許多不太知名的醫學院出現了招生難現象。還有些高校發現，一些高考分數較低的學生利用一些醫學院錄取分數線較低的機會考進大學，目的只是爲了在入學後轉到其他更有“錢途”的專業。
“Compared to western countries, the social status and income of doctors in China is not the highest, so [some medical schools] definitely are not able to attract the best students and the result is that the profession of doctors is not the most elite in Chinese society,” says Huang Gang, vice-dean of Jiaotong University medical school in Shanghai.
上海交大醫學院(Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine)副院長黃鋼表示：“與西方國家相比，中國醫生的社會地位和收入都不是最高，因此（有些醫學院）肯定招不到最好的學生，結果造成醫生在中國社會中也不屬於最精英的階層。”
Top faculties such as Jiaotong usually have little problem filling their quota for students with good marks, he says, adding that he would prefer to lower his grade expectations if the student were truly committed to studying medicine.
他表示，交大等一流醫學院要招到高分學生通常沒什麼問題，不過他補充稱，如果學生真的有志學醫，他願意降低分數要求。
He says only about 5 per cent of Jiaotong medical students transfer to another faculty each year. But less elite medical schools, such as the one at Xiamen University where Dr Wang studied, struggle to fill available spaces. Xiamen medical school recently waived all fees for those training to be doctors, to attract better candidates.
黃剛表示，上海交大醫學院每年只有約5%的學生轉系。但廈門大學醫學院（Xiamen University Medical School，開頭提到的王大夫就畢業於這裏）等名氣較低的醫學院，則很難招滿學生。爲吸引更好的生源，廈大醫學院最近免除了醫學專業學生的所有費用。
Dr Wang, 25, says he estimates about 80 per cent of his intake class at Xiamen medical school in 2006 did not end up there because they wanted to be doctors: he estimates that less than half ended up wearing white coats. Some chose instead to work in the pharmaceutical industry, now embroiled in bribery allegations which could further damage the public image of the medical profession.
今年25歲的王大夫表示，據他估計，與他一同在2006年入讀廈門大學醫學院的同學中，大約由80%的學生都是調劑過來的。他估計，他的同學中只有不到一半最終當了醫生。還有一些同學選擇進入製藥行業，而製藥業如今爆出的賄賂醜聞，進一步破壞了醫療工作者在公衆眼中的形象。
Speaking after a gruelling day working in the emergency department of a Shanghai hospital, Dr Wang says low salaries are one reason that medicine does not attract China’s best students .
在上海一家醫院的急診室，剛剛結束一天辛苦工作的王大夫說，在中國，工資低是醫學專業無法吸引最優秀學生的原因之一。
A survey last year conducted by MyCos education consultants in Beijing found that the average monthly salary for clinical medicine graduates was Rmb2,339 ($382) within six months of graduation. Average income for all graduates was Rmb3,051 nationwide, with doctors and nurses the lowest.
北京麥可思(MyCos)的教育顧問們去年的一項調查顯示，臨牀醫學專業畢業生在畢業半年內的平均月薪爲2339元人民幣（合382美元）。中國畢業生的平均月薪爲3051元人民幣，醫生和護士兩種職業墊底。
Many doctors complain that disgruntled patients increasingly turn to violence when doctors are unable to cure their ills, even when there is no mal-practice.
許多醫生還抱怨稱，在疾病無法痊癒時，患者用暴力發泄不滿的趨勢上升，哪怕醫生在治療方面並無過錯。
A plastic surgery patient used a knife to attack three nurses, one pregnant, in the central Chinese city of Changsha in September. Doctors say they often have to pay out of their own pocket when patients sue them.
今年9月，在華中城市長沙市，一名接受了整容手術的病人持刀砍傷三名護士，其中一名護士懷有身孕。醫生們表示，遇到患者起訴時，他們經常不得不自掏腰包向病人賠償。
State media reports that attacks on doctors are becoming more frequent. The average number of assaults rose to 27.3 per hospital in 2012, compared with 20.6 in 2008, according to a Xinhua news agency report, citing a survey from the Chinese Hospital Association. Dr Wang seems resigned to being attacked. “It will happen sooner or later,” he says.
中國官方媒體報道稱，患者襲擊醫生事件日益頻繁地發生。新華社援引中國醫院協會(Chinese Hospital Association)的調查稱，2012年平均每家醫院發生27.3起襲醫事件，而2008年的這個數字爲20.6件。王醫生看上去對遇襲已經聽天由命了。他說：“這是早晚的事兒。”
Xinhua reported that the violence is starting to chase doctors out of the profession: nearly 40 per cent of medical personnel surveyed at 316 hospitals nationally from December 2012 to July 2013 said they planned to give up their profession because of greater violence in hospitals.
新華社報道稱，暴力事件開始讓醫生們考慮改行。2012年12月至2013年7月的調查顯示，在中國各地316家醫院中，近40%的醫務人員曾因襲醫事件日益增多而萌生轉行的念頭。
But hospital administrators and medical students point out that the situation is not uniformly bad. In poorer areas where other professions may not be available, the best students are willing to risk long hours and possible violence to study medicine.
但醫院管理者和醫學院學生指出，局面並非全然那麼糟糕。在沒有其他職業選擇的較爲貧困的地區，那些最優秀的學生可能仍願意冒長時間工作和遇襲的風險去學醫。
Dr Wang says he has embraced the profession he accidentally ended up in. He just wishes that patients – Chinese hospital physicians sometimes treat 100-200 a day – would give him a break.
王大夫表示，他已接受了這個自己偶然步入的行業。他只希望，病患們能對他寬容一點。在中國，公立醫院的醫生有時一天要接診一兩百名病人。
“When I see so many patients each day how can I smile at them?” he asks, noting ruefully, “they still want me to smile at them”.
他問道：“我每天看這麼多病人，這種情況下我怎麼可能還笑得出來?”他遺憾地指出，“他們還要求我面帶微笑”。
Additional reporting by Zhang Yan
張嫣補充報道
