Society should be satisfied with the increasingly improved medical services it receives. However, when patients suffer an injury because of a wrong diagnose or sloppy medical practice, they have a right to be upset.

In my opinion, the doctor, instead of the hospital, should be held accountable when accidents happen, because the doctor's misjudgment is mostly due to their lack of responsibility for the patient's welfare; this should be a basic professional requirement.

Doctors should know this and keep it in mind from the first day they receive their medical degree and throughout their career. Careless treatment of the patient creates a series of negative effects to the doctor and the society. In fact, the social cost to train a doctor is very high.

The careless mistakes by doctors should be punished, otherwise, the doctors will have no incentive to learn from their mistakes. In this way, a sound professional virtue can be maintained among doctors.

Li Yanfei

June 6, 2007