Great Doctor Ling Ran

Chapter 497 - Sending a Freelance Surgeon

Chapter 497: Sending a Freelance Surgeon

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Huo Congjun did not come alone. Instead, he sought He Yuanzheng to accompany him, and they rushed to the hospital room.

Huo Congjun stayed longer in the hospital when the Emergency Medical Center was being expanded.

Nowadays, he could not even find the energy to attend certain meetings as some people did not deserve his scoldings anymore. For Huo Congjun, his greatest dream was to have a larger Emergency Department so that he could prevent some tragedies from happening again.

He Yuanzheng was slightly influenced by Ling Ran.

He was now studying hepatectomy in order to improve himself. As a high-class doctor, He Yuanzheng was still considered young. It was the trend for the people of his age to keep improving their own skills.

Huo Congjun waited for He Yuanzheng in front of the elevator. He said while walking, “Later, you’ll be the person in charge. You are the chief physician of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, your words will carry weight.”

“Okay.” He Yuanzheng had no reason to reject this.

The patients and their families were indeed the most annoying things for first-string doctors. But once he handled a lot of such things, he would get used to it.

Both of them went into the room together. Then, they saw at least ten family members gathered outside. They fully occupied the small room.

“Department Director Huo. Department Director He.” Zuo Cidian immediately greeted Huo Congjun when him. Then, he introduced the people, “These are the family members of Bed 76…”

“Let me take a look at the patient’s condition.” Huo Congjun stopped the patient’s agitated family members from doing anything. He took the nursing record from the bottom of the bed and started to look it quietly.

Everyone originally had the great desire to speak, but when they saw Huo Congjun take the medical record, they dared not say a single word.

Huo Congjun held the medical record and read the record on top while he observed the patient’s family.

“Let us talk outside and let the patient rest well. Please don’t be anxious, and don’t be quick-tempered. Don’t worry,” Huo Congjun said while he pulled He Yuanzheng out of the room. He did not give any chance for the family members to surround them.

There was a meeting room near the ward. Huo Congjun entered the meeting room and arranged He Yuanzheng to sit in the main seat before he sat beside He Yuanzheng and faced to the door. Suddenly, he felt as if he had instantly regained control.

The patient’s family members who came after them hesitantly split themselves into a few groups. They looked uncomfortable.

Huo Congjun looked at He Yuanzheng.

“Have you found the freelance surgeon?” He Yuanzheng went straight to the point.

“We think that our father’s condition is quite serious. Of course, we understand that for the hospital and doctors, this is just a normal disease, and all of you have performed many cases like this. But for us, we just hope our father will be better, so it’s okay even though we need to spend more money…” The patient’s youngest son stood out and spoke. His expression was calmer, and he spoke in a clearer manner.

He Yuanzheng nodded slowly. “I can understand your feelings, but it is not allowed for the patient to contact the freelance surgeon by themselves.”

“Why?” The second son who contacted the freelance surgeon instantly felt unhappy.

“Because hiring freelance surgeons is against regulations, and our hospital needs to bear responsibility. Furthermore, the freelance surgeons contacted by the patient may differ in quality. If anything happens, our hospital will not be able to come up with a solution.”

“I asked Department Director Feng Zhixiang to perform the surgery, and not a quack.” The second son was already fifty years old. His beard and sideburns were white, and the way he spoke was quite harsh.

He Yuanzheng was stunned, and Huo Congjun immediately turned around to look at Zuo Cidian.

Zuo Cidian smiled bitterly. “I have only just learned about it.”

Feng Zhixiang was someone who appeared in teaching materials. His name was found in the editorial board of many surgical atlases. In the medical field, editors were not inferior to the authors. It was because most of the newly revised medical information must be approved by the editors. Such medical information would become the trend of the medical field and also learning material for medical students.

When Zuo Cidian worked at the town hospital, he did not care about the famous figures in the medical field. Even when he was at Yun Hua Hospital now, he could not clearly understand the situation. He only knew that this person was someone special when he saw Department Director Huo’s expression.

“Did Professor Feng Zhixiang agree to come?” He Yuanzheng scowled and asked.

“He did. I went to him. He was reluctant to come at first. So, I personally went to Beijing to convince him, and he finally agreed,” the second son said proudly. This was not an easy task, and he became more proud when he successfully completed this task.

He Yuanzheng could not help but have a change in his mindset.

Yun Hua Hospital was the top hospital in Yun Hua City and Changxi Province, and it also had a certain degree of influence to the provinces nearby. However, Feng Zhixiang was the most influential expert in general surgeries in the country. He had participated in the revision of medical information multiple times, and his level surpassed Yun Hua Hospital by leaps and bounds.

If the best expert came for a freelance surgery, Yun Hua Hospital will have no say in it. In fact, with the fame of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery in Yun Hua Hospital, even if they paid Feng Zhixiang to attend a conference here, he might not even acknowledge their offer.

This was just like how the chief physicians in Yun Hua Hospital would not go to county hospitals.

If the bottom of their hearts, Yun Hua Hospital was very willing to invite Feng Zhixiang over. At least, He Yuanzheng was very happy to do so.

The Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery will usually not even be able to invite a person like this over.

In the beginning, the rules used by the hospital to hire a freelance surgeon was to get rid of the doctors that were not famous and whom they were not familiar with. Sometimes, they even hired freelance surgeons to get rid of doctors who did not have a good relationship with the hospital.

And in the beginning, freelance surgeons were actually invited by the patients.

Patients invited the doctors they knew to operate on them through their personal network. As it was related to their survival, even if the doctors were not very close to the patients, the doctors from other places might still come over to perform the surgery.

Before freelance surgeries became an unspoken rule, inviting doctors over to perform freelance surgeries was not an easy task. After all, the famous doctors would normally not be willing to operate on a patient if they needed to bear a high risk to perform surgery for someone irrelevant.

Famous doctors would not even take a fancy to the pay for freelance surgeons especially for the doctors who became department directors. Their income was high before the medical reformation, so they did not really care about freelance surgery fees, which was worth only around a few thousand.

At that time, the department directors were supported by the pharmaceutical sales companies, and they did not even care about money.

Nowadays, freelance surgeries in hospitals had become a norm, especially for doctors from local hospitals who had established an unofficial alliance with high-class doctors in Beijing and Shanghai. Naturally, they would eliminate freelance doctors to whom they were not familiar with.

However, this was not something set in stone.

If the freelance surgeon was not part of his personal network, that surgeon will become part of his personal network once he just formed a connection with him.

When he thought about this, He Yuanzheng became slightly more polite. He said, “Professor Feng Zhixiang’s techniques are good, but Professor Feng is almost seventy years old. Will he perform the surgery on his own, or will he be guiding the surgery?”

When they talked about this topic, the second son from the Ding Family was slightly dazed, so he shook his head in confusion.

He Yuanzheng coughed and said, “It will take two hours for hepatectomy if the surgeon is quick. If the condition is bad, the surgeon needs four to five hours to complete it. Professor Feng Zhixiang is about the same age as your father. It will be quite difficult for him to stand on the operating table for three to four hours, right?”

“Isn’t that what he always does when he performs surgery?” The second son realized what he said. He shook his head and said, “Since he has agreed to it, I did not ask anything else.”

“I still suggest that you ask first,” Huo Congjun said slowly. “Doctor Ling Ran from our hospital is very skilled too. If you invite Professor Feng to perform guided surgery, our Ling Ran…”

“Department Director Huo, since the patient’s family has made the request, I think we can consider it based on their desires.” He Yuanzheng seemed to have been conquered at this moment. For him, it would be good even if he got to know Professor Feng Zhixiang.

This was the same attitude the other doctors showed when Yun Hua Hospital welcomed Academician Zhu Tongyi the last time.

The entire hospital needed to be mobilized to welcome him.

Professor Feng Zhixiang was not an academician, and that was naturally related to his lack of luck, but his status in general surgeries in the country was quite high. At the very least, it was very worthy for He Yuanzheng to get to know him.

Huo Congjun thought about it for a few seconds, and he did not continue to fight.

Ling Ran had plenty of surgeries to perform now. The main difficulty was that there were no sufficient beds. Besides, those were the beds from the ICU. So, even if he fought for it with force, there was not much meaning to it, and that was not accounting to the possibility of whether the patient would even listen to him.

On the other hand, a top-class expert of general surgeries like Feng Zhixiang could make He Yuanzheng improve himself. He might also have a bigger effect on Ling Ran.

So, Huo Congjun remained silent.

The patient’s family was delighted when they saw that the doctors had agreed.

The youngest son wanted to be sure again. “If we invite Professor Feng Zhixiang here, all the medical cost can be covered by the medical insurance as well, right?”

“You can cover most of the cost. The details will depend on the rules set by your medical insurance company. We will treat your father the same way our doctors treat their other patients,” He Yuanzheng said, “But you will pay for the cost of the freelance surgeon yourself.”

“Okay, no problem.” The second son of the Ding Family took on everything that involved money. He was the richest among the children, and he did not care much about money. But he emphasized certain things. “Professor Feng Zhixiang is the top doctor in general surgeries in our country. Regardless of whether it is the liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, or kidney, he is the expert in all these. If we spend some money to hire someone like this for the surgery, we will all feel at ease, right?”

He Yuanzheng smiled and looked at Huo Congjun with a guilty conscience.

Huo Congjun had thought things through. He smiled and said, “I’ve told you that you’ll be in charge of this. The patient is staying at the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, so you just need to agree and sign the forms.”

He Yuanzheng immediately agreed and sent Huo Congjun away. Then, he came back to discuss the details about Feng Zhixiang’s invitation. Although he was a freelance surgeon invited by the patient, in order to execute the plan, the internal administrators of the hospital will need to handle matters.