Chapter 117: Emergency Room 4 Overcrowded
Doctor Jiang was in his early thirties, more robust than Huang Zhilei, and was introduced as the attending physician from General Surgery Department One, on emergency shift.
In China, most emergency department doctors come from various specialties on rotation, and there are very few who actually belong to the emergency department.
As for general surgery, it’s a very broad concept, which can be divided into many sub-specialties. Thus, the general public usually doesn’t understand why some general surgeons treat certain diseases while others do not, and sometimes they seem to treat everything. The main reason is that since hospitals began competitive internships with self-sustaining financial responsibilities, fierce competition under market conditions occasionally leads to stealing patients and performing surgeries from other specialties.
Currently, Guoxie’s General Surgery Department One and Two both primarily handle the most common gastrointestinal surgeries, Department Three houses Guoxie’s most famous Hepatobiliary Surgery, Department Four covers colorectal surgery, Department Five urology, Department Six thyroid, breast, and neck, Department Seven burn surgery, and Department Eight vascular surgery. That’s right, there’s also a small pediatric surgery department. Orthopedics and hand surgery are completely separate specialties. With so many departments, no wonder they had to build a dedicated surgical building.
Unlike the neurosurgery department with fewer staff, General Surgery Department One alone boasts as many as eleven attending physicians, and the competition among colleagues is unimaginably fierce. “You were lucky to go into neurosurgery back then,” Doctor Jiang said to Huang Zhilei, “Everyone knows it’s a coveted position to stay in neurosurgery.”
With fewer people in neurosurgery, promotions or becoming famous were relatively easy. Across Guoxie, whether in internal medicine or surgery, no department had fewer people than neurosurgery. After all, neurosurgery is considered the apex of surgery and has particularly high standards.
“I should say it was all thanks to my senior brother,” admitted Huang Zhilei candidly. His ability to stay in the neurosurgery department was greatly attributable to Cao Yong’s help.
“Cao Yong, right.” Doctor Jiang sighed with nothing but admiration, “I heard he has returned to the country.”
“He just came back yesterday, and nobody knew about it. I only found out when he called me after arriving at the hospital,” said Huang Zhilei.
“You’re lucky. It’s going to be tougher for your juniors,” Doctor Jiang said quietly.
Huang Zhilei managed to stay at Guoxie over three years ago, the same year Xie Wanying and her peers enrolled. At that time, the number of master’s and doctoral students in domestic medicine had not surged like it has today.
Those in the medical field know that the grueling competition for employment in Tier-3 hospitals among medical students will only become more intense, never lessening by the slightest degree.
For an institution like Guoxie, due to the high number of their own master’s graduates wanting to stay at its affiliated hospital every year, the competition is stiff. Everyone wants to stay at the affiliated hospital of their alma mater, which is ranked the best in the country.
Those from the eight-year program have no particular advantage in employment. They may be academic aces at the time of the college entrance exam, but it’s hard to tell if they’ll remain so after graduation. This is especially true in surgery, where hands-on skills are critically important. Those from the eight-year program who fail to stay on at the hospital often end up working in university research labs to maintain employment rates, as universities retain some of the students who struggle to graduate.
However, there are exceptions such as Cao Yong. With fierce natural talent, he had no fear of being unwanted; on the contrary, various institutions fought fiercely for him.
After so many years, will there finally be another surgical genius emerging from the eight-year program besides Cao Yong? The events of the previous night had spread throughout the hospital, and everyone took note. Doctor Jiang examined Xie Wanying, wondering what made this female intern stand out.
While the two senior clinicians were conversing, Xie Wanying was mindful of the young patient’s request and kept an eye on Father Liu’s condition.