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A short excerpt from
A Song of Triumph for Chairman Mao's Proletarian Line on Public
Health, a 1969 documentary film produced by the Chinese government
showing PLA medical workers treating deaf-mute children at a school
in rural China:
Who is the Blame? The Search for Scapegoats
Medical Malfunction
As the Cultural Revolution progressed, or 'deepened' as the jargon
of the day put it, institutions of all kinds, including educational
and medical, were thrown into complete disarray. Many doctors and
nurses were denounced for their bourgeois background and training,
for their dubious social or international connections, or simply for
their ideological attitude towards the supposed supernatural power
of Mao Zedong Thought.
Mao had criticized the urban-bias of the medical profession and, as
in the case of the ministries of culture and propaganda, had said
that the Ministry of Public Hygiene was a center for 'urban old
fogies' (chengshi laoye bu). Now all the crimes of
specialized medicine and its failure to address the needs of the
laboring people, in particular the peasantry, was put down to the
'interference' of the black revisionist line supported by Liu Shaoqi
and his followers. For years efforts had been made to train
paramedics for the countryside and now 'barefoot doctors', that is
medical practitioners unencumbered by leather shoes and city ways,
were being given short first-aid courses in the countryside and sent
out to deal with all manner of affliction. The criticisms were not
only disastrous for the medical profession. Many people denounced as
blackguards, be they political figures, teachers, cultural figures,
engineers, or other members of the widely-excoriated and suspicious
educated classes, if taken ill or physically traumatized by the
attacks of revolutionaries, were regularly refused medical treatment
at clinics and hospitals. Now classed as subhuman, or as class
enemies, they deserved none of the 'revolutionary humanitarianism'
lauded by the party. That was reserved for men and women who were on
the right side of history.
Incorrect or late treatment, neglect or malpractice saw the maiming
and deaths of untold numbers of people during these years. It was
also as a result of the paralysis in the public health system that
the paramedical efforts of the People's Liberation Army and the
barefoot doctors, and other non-professionals took on such a major
role. Unfortunately, as in the case of the PLA medical teams, it was
often more of a propaganda role than anything else.
Previous:
2. The Role of the People's Liberation Army
Next:
4. Consulting the Works of Chairman Mao
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