Chapter 295 - : Vacations are just a lie! (1/2)

Vacations and holidays were legally mandated in China. Yet, at Chinese hospitals, vacations were nothing more than a myth to the resident doctors and rotation doctors who were like dogs. The hospitals technically wouldn’t force the lower-ranking doctors to work overtime on vacation and holiday days, but the higher-ranking doctors, department directors, and hospital administration director would all be watching the lower-ranking doctors’ work attitude. The lower-ranking doctors would all “voluntarily” choose to work overtime then! It was by their own choice, as nobody would force them. Of course, they could choose to not work overtime, but it was likely that they would then lose their job or be left out of promotion opportunities.

The rotation doctor system at hospitals was similar to an employment fair for intern doctors. Both the doctor and the department would have the right to choose. You could choose a department, but the department would also have to choose you. Doctors who waited until the hospital assigned them to a department would be quite pitiful. These rotation doctors would be sent to the most marginalized departments with lots of internal conflicts and little income or departments with the most difficult work. It would be extremely difficult for a doctor to get reassigned to a different department once they were permanently assigned to one. It wouldn’t be possible to get reassigned without a special reason!

In order to get accepted into a department, first the rotation doctor would have to receive their teaching doctor’s recognition, then the recognition of the medical team leader who would usually be a doctor with second-highest level certification, and finally the department director’s recognition. Only then would the hospital allow you to join a department of your choice. It would require a foundational skill level combined with constant hard work in order to receive everyone’s recognition. If an intern doctor was always lazy, then nobody would want them when it came time to be permanently assigned to a department!

Although it was possible to get into a department by using connections, you would never be able to keep your head raised proudly, because the hospital was a workplace where skills were king. Someone who used connections to get in the department wouldn’t have a good time there. Others in the department would forever either openly or secretly laugh at you, as you wouldn’t be considered their own kind. Even someone with good connections would still be disliked by the director for having used connections to get into the department.

However, there were also special departments such as the thyroid and mammary gland department. At every Chinese hospital, this department would always become a mistress garden for government leaders. The doctors who were able to enter this department might only have average skills, while their connections would be far more amazing. At this type of department, it was likely that there were only one or two highly skilled doctors, while almost all the other doctors had used connections to join.

That was why it was common for the thyroid and mammary gland department to be incapable of performing many of their surgeries, which would then be given over to doctors from general surgery.

The weather was gradually getting warmer with spring’s return. The farmers, nomads, and temporary farm workers all became busy. The entire year’s harvest would depend on spring, so this was no time to be slacking off. This led to fewer people coming to the hospital to get treated. This was the only time of year when hospitals would have slightly fewer patients, giving the doctors a small break.

Chasu City Hospital gave all rotation doctors three days of vacation during this time. Although it was supposedly vacation, it wasn’t free at all. The hospital organized the young doctors to go tree planting.

Desertification in northwestern China was really severe. In order to protect the vegetative cover, the Chinese government had ordered all workplaces to have their employees plant trees, the number of which would correspond to the size of the workplace.

Chasu City Hospital was the workplace with the greatest number of employees in all of Chasu City if all the nurses who didn’t have official positions were counted. Thus, Chasu City Hospital’s tree planting task was quite significant. An entire hill at a village under Chasu City’s jurisdiction belonged to Chasu City Hospital’s area for tree planting. Several hundred doctors and nurses spread out on the hillside to plant trees, but the hill still seemed quite empty! This was quite a large hill.

Shao Hua’s bank also had the same tree planting task like everyone else. However, the bank was rich and willing to pay contractors to perform the tree planting task instead. Meanwhile, Superintendent Ouyang was really stingy with money, so she would never be willing to pay for contractors to help with this task.

Thus, the young doctors and nurses had fun as they planted trees on the mountain. They found it fun to come out as they usually lived in the city for most of the year. Besides, they simply had to plant the young trees without caring if the trees actually survived successfully or not. Even if all of the planted trees died, they would simply plant more next year!

It had been a long time since Zhang Fan had been out in the wilderness. He felt that the fresh mountain air was really comfortable.

Chasu City was located in a valley at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. To the east was a large patch of primeval forest; to the west were plains and the -stan suffix countries. These plains were the largest plains in all of Asia.

To the north were endless snow mountains. Snow could be seen on these mountains even in summer. These snow mountains acted as a mega air conditioner for Chasu City that would prevent the summers from getting too hot. There were often large rainstorms that would wash away the heat of summer. These snow mountains also blocked off the spring sandstorms. This helped to make Chasu City really comfortable to live in.

To the south was another forest as well as some swampland. Chasu City Hospital’s assigned tree planting area was in the south. As Zhang Fan stood on top of the hill and gazed into the distance, he saw nothing but green now that winter had ended.

The hills and forests here were different from those in Zhang Fan’s hometown, which always had only the same dirt-yellow color! There would be nothing but endless dirt-yellow in his hometown.

“You’re slacking off! Come pull me up! My legs are going soft,” said Lu Shuyan, who climbed up to come chat with Zhang Fan when she saw that he was looking off into the distance at the top of the hill.

“You still haven’t finished planting your trees?” Zhang Fan pulled Lu Shuyan up.

“The others were fighting over planting my share.” Lu Shuyan was a woman who was single as well as beautiful. Plenty of single men would fight over doing heavy work for her sake, so she didn’t need to do anything.

“Haha! That must be nice.” Zhang Fan didn’t know what else to say.

“I heard that you’re about to be permanently assigned to a department?” Lu Shuyan adjusted her hair as a slight breeze blew past while turning to smile at Zhang Fan.

“Yeah, although I’m still going to do one last rotation in the hematology department.” Zhang Fan wasn’t concerned about how she had learned this news about him. There were far too many information channels in the hospital. It would be far too easy for a beautiful woman like Lu Shuyan to learn something.

“What about after your final rotation?”

“I’ll probably join the orthopedic surgery department! That was the official position that I was recruited for to begin with.”

“Okay!” Lu Shuyan began to think about her ex-boyfriend when Zhang Fan mentioned orthopedic surgery as her ex-boyfriend had also been studying the same subject!

Lu Shuyan remained silent for a moment, and then probed, “The hand and foot surgery hospital is your base?” She was curious just like anyone would be.

“Pretty much, haha!” Zhang Fan felt that it was awkward to explain directly that he was actually the boss of his own hospital.

“Could you help me ask if they need gynecologists to help with any work there?” Lu Shuyan asked with some embarrassment.

“What, you’re in need of money?” Zhang Fan turned to look at her.

“Look at what you’re saying. Who doesn’t need money? I need to prepare my dowry. I’ll be getting old if I don’t marry soon!” Lu Shuyan glanced over at Zhang Fan meaningfully.

“Oh, but I don’t think I’ll be able to help you. The hand and foot surgery only has the one hand and foot surgery department, with no other departments at all.”

“Alright then, don’t worry about it. How about you? When are you going to get married?” Lu Shuyan turned to look into the distance after asking Zhang Fan this question.

“Oh, the renovations on our new apartment are just about finished. I need to get engaged to my girlfriend first. My family is really traditional. I have to get engaged first,” Zhang Fan explained. But, before he could even finish, Lu Shuyan, who had been sitting next to him, suddenly got up and left without saying anything!

She got up and left so suddenly that the dust she kicked up entered Zhang Fan’s eyes.

“Sigh! Is there a need for this?” Zhang Fan mumbled to himself as he watched Lu Shuyan walk off. Maybe Zhang Fan had hurt her feelings because his relationship was going so well!

The doctors’ first day of “vacation” was for planting trees. The second day was for learning Communist Party knowledge at a Communist Party school. The teachers here were really professional! They lectured about what the doctors could say, how to be motivated, discipline, and so on! Not only did the doctors have to listen to the lecture, they would have to write self-reflections on what they had learned and turn in their essays to the leader of the hospital’s Communist Party branch.