Chapter 251 - 167: Serious Investigation, Zero Tolerance

Chapter 251: Chapter 167: Serious Investigation, Zero Tolerance

The moment Yang Xu walked in, everyone could tell he was furious.

He sat down, pulled the microphone toward him, and said:

"Let me make an introduction."

"This is Minister Lin Zhenhua from the Provincial Health Ministry. Minister Lin was originally chairing a meeting in the provincial capital, but when he heard that our Affiliated Hospital No. 1 was holding a hospital-wide quality control conference, he became particularly interested in our efforts to enforce medical standards. So, he canceled his afternoon schedule and made a special trip over—"

"To observe and learn."

He enunciated those words with deliberate weight.

Dean Chen immediately stood up, his smile still amiable. "Minister Lin, what brings you here in person?"

Zhang Sui also rose to his feet, giving a slight nod of acknowledgment. "Minister Lin."

After a brief moment of shock, the department directors and head nurses in the audience also stood to offer their greetings.

Ma Huaide remained seated, his mind a complete blank.

He wanted to stand up and greet the minister with the rest of the hospital leadership, but his legs felt too weak to support him.

Lin Zhenhua waved his hand, gesturing for everyone to sit down.

His expression was perfectly calm, showing no sign that he was here to condemn anyone. He composedly took a seat next to Dean Chen.

Once the formalities of welcoming the minister were over, Yang Xu’s expression turned cold. He said:

"Yesterday, I was at a meeting in the provincial capital. The topic was how to advance the development of the province-wide critical care system and how to protect our medical staff who are fighting on the clinical front lines."

"I had thought that Affiliated Hospital No. 1, as a benchmark for the entire province, would be setting an example in protecting its front-line doctors. But last night, I heard about something that I found utterly absurd and infuriating."

"A new doctor, on his very first day, was forcibly assigned fifteen critical care beds by the Medical Affairs Department under the guise that the most capable should bear the most responsibility."

"Fifteen critical care beds. What does that mean? All of you here are veteran clinicians; I don’t need to explain it to you. In one night, dealing with massive gastrointestinal bleeding, postoperative infection from severe pancreatitis, and pain management for terminal cancer patients... this young doctor pulled an all-nighter and, against all odds, stabilized all fifteen of them. When he handed them off, their vitals were stable, and not a single mistake had been made."

"But today, what awaited him was not commendation, not rest, but the Medical Affairs Department, together with quality control officers, using a magnifying glass to pick out over thirty typos and formatting errors from his progress notes. They demanded he scrap and rewrite all fifteen major case files and be publicly criticized at a hospital-wide meeting."

Yang Xu’s suppressed fury finally began to seep through his words.

He began to call people out by name, his voice sharp:

"Ma Huaide, I’m asking you."

"On the night of the massive pile-up on the Ring City Expressway, when the rain was pouring down and Jiang He was in the red zone, consecutively diagnosing enterogenous cyanosis and Tension Pneumothorax, saving countless patients... as a doctor, where were you?"

"Ma Huaide, I’ll ask you again."

"When Jiang He proposed his revolutionary posterior approach, pulling a patient back from death’s door, were you not in your office scheming how to assign the high-turnover, high-profit beds to the attending physicians you’re friendly with?"

"Ma Huaide, I have one last question for you!"

"As the head of the Medical Affairs Department, with full control over the hospital’s scheduling and bed assignments, you dump fifteen critical care beds on a brand-new hire. What was your thought process?!"

"You talk on and on about enforcing medical standards and following SOPs. Are you really trying to manage quality control, or are you just using the rules and regulations as a weapon to suppress dissent and abuse your power?!"

"Answer me!"

While Yang Xu was speaking,

Dean Chen had been leaning sideways, speaking in a low voice into Lin Zhenhua’s ear.

He gave Minister Lin a concise summary of what had happened in the first half of the meeting, including the righteous words spoken by Zhao Yumin, Liu Jianbang, and others, as well as the evidence Vice Dean Zhang Sui had procured: three years of scheduling data and proof of preferential treatment from the Medical Affairs Department.

Lin Zhenhua listened, his gaze as calm as still water, and nodded slightly.

When Yang Xu’s voice faded, Lin Zhenhua reached out and patted his shoulder.

"Director Yang, calm down. The more problems we encounter, the more rationally we must view them. Your health is important."

Then, he turned his head to face the entire room.

"I did, in fact, come here today mainly for this matter."

"Some of you may not be very familiar with this young man, Jiang He. You know his clinical skills are excellent, and you know he’s been published in a top-tier journal. But from the Provincial Ministry’s perspective, Comrade Jiang He’s value is far greater than that."

"And here, I can let you all in on something."

"Currently, preparations are underway for the National Joint Research Laboratory for Respiratory Virus Engineering. This project is crucial in determining whether our country can break through the technological barriers imposed by foreign nations in reverse genetics. And Comrade Jiang He is the designated head of this national-level P3 laboratory."

As soon as he said this, a collective gasp swept through the conference room.

Zhao Yumin and Liu Jianbang exchanged a look, each seeing the shock mirrored in the other’s eyes.

They knew Jiang He was brilliant, but they never imagined he was on this level.

"Therefore," Lin Zhenhua’s tone was measured, "when Director Yang told me that Comrade Jiang He was unable to participate in advancing this national project because he was saddled with fifteen critical care beds and had to rewrite case files all night, I was profoundly shocked."

"The Provincial Ministry simply does not understand."

"Affiliated Hospital No. 1 is the vanguard of our entire provincial medical system. We place our best resources and most promising talents here, hoping they will receive the best environment for growth and be able to serve even more patients. And yet, what we see instead is a doctor who has made distinguished contributions being treated this way in his own backyard."