From The Beijing Times, via sina.com.cn, translated by CDT:
It is learned from the Beijing Health Bureau that a “smile and quality service” campaign will be carried out among the city’s health care providers. One recommendation is that doctors proactively greet the patients before seeing them and say thanks after treating.
According to health officials, the campaign is to build trust between doctors and patients. It has been an ages-old convention that people say going to see a doctor as “begging a doctor” in Chinese, hinting at the unequal relationship between doctors and patients.
However, Sina’s polls suggest that most people don’t agree and don’t think this will work. As of tonight (Feb. 28, Pacific time), 64% respondents disapprove the suggestion that doctors say thanks to patients, and 30% agree. Almost 70% don’t think this campaign would work, against 24% say it would. [Full Text in Chinese, survey here]
