Chapter 22: Countryside Expert!
July 15th, Wednesday.
A light drizzle, slightly misty, enveloped the Long County People’s Hospital nestled in the mountains. Moisture condensed on the windows, dripping down the outer surface like a broken spiderweb.
The doctor’s office in the observation ward was silent. Only the crisp sound of pages turning occasionally broke the quiet, from on-duty doctor Lu Cheng and Hu Shuo, the newly recruited resident physician in Internal Medicine.
The two sat on opposite sides of the office, undisturbed, as if reading in a city library.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Cheng noticed Chen Song standing behind him with his hands clasped behind his back, observing him quietly with a complex gaze.
Lu Cheng quickly used his pen on the right to bookmark a section in “Huang Jiasheng’s Surgery” and asked sideways, “Teacher Chen… are we about to start a surgery?”
“You could have just sent me a message.”
Lu Cheng was on the ward’s day shift and was obligated to assist Chen Song with emergency surgery tasks when necessary.
Chen Song turned and walked out without a word. Although Lu Cheng didn’t understand why Chen Song didn’t reply, he followed.
Chen Song walked to the doctor’s lounge and scratched his scalp. He sat down on the lower bunk of the worn, yellow-painted double bed on the right, pressing down the wrinkles in the yellow and white striped bedding.
Chen Song sighed, “Xiao Lu, I’ve really seen it all.”
“Your hospital is awesome!” Chen Song deliberately gave a thumbs-up, his left thumb nearly parallel to his forearm.
“What’s wrong, Teacher Chen?” Lu Cheng was puzzled by Chen Song’s sudden sarcasm.
“Do you know Doctor Xiang Daihong from the Orthopedics department at Xiangzhou People’s Hospital?” Chen Song asked directly.
Lu Cheng thought for a moment and shook his head, smiling sheepishly, “In the Orthopedics department at Zhou People’s Hospital, I only know a few directors, Director Li, Director Zhou, and them.”
Xiangzhou People’s Hospital had four sub-specialties. Lu Cheng had previously applied for a position there and had proactively learned about the directors of each specialty.
Director Li was the administrative director of Orthopedics, and Director Zhou was the ward director of Trauma Surgery.
Lu Cheng indeed had no impression of this Doctor Xiang Daihong, and he didn’t have the time to research the doctors in Xiangzhou People’s Hospital’s Orthopedics department every day.
Chen Song then enlightened Lu Cheng, “According to Director Lin Qianlong of the Emergency Department, Xiang Daihong is a senior attending physician in the upper limb and hand surgery group at Xiangzhou People’s Hospital, and he is about to be promoted to Deputy Chief Physician.”
“Promotion requires grassroots experience. He was originally supposed to go to Huayuan County, but your Director Peng snatched him away.”
Xiangzhou, including Jishi City, had a total of eight counties and cities. Long County and Huayuan County were both county towns under Xiangzhou’s jurisdiction.
Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng’s throat and voice tightened instantly: “All for training Peng Kun in tendon suturing?”
According to national policy, in China, many fields require ‘grassroots’ work experience for promotion of professional titles. For prefectural city hospitals and teaching hospitals like Xiangya Second Hospital, remote county hospitals are considered grassroots work experience.
Chen Song needed to go to the countryside for promotion, and doctors at Xiangzhou People’s Hospital also needed to go to the countryside for promotion. July and August were the peak seasons for going to the countryside.
If Chen Song could come to Long County People’s Hospital, then Doctor Xiang Daihong from Zhou People’s Hospital could also come.
“Doctor Xiang is here to support the medical and health work in your Long County,” Chen Song emphasized deliberately to Lu Cheng, urging him to adjust his mindset.
The ‘technical accumulation’ in hand surgery at county hospitals was almost zero, true for both Long County and Huayuan County.
It was reasonable for Peng Haibo to bring Xiang Daihong over, as Long County’s economic level was slightly better than Huayuan County’s.
Peng Haibo, as the Director of Orthopedics in Long County, was a local ‘little overlord’. His social graces were undoubtedly in place, and he had certainly navigated general social relationships.
Lu Cheng immediately replied with a smile, “Teacher Chen, I definitely understand that.”
“But Doctor Xiang won’t come until at least next month… the Orthopedics department can’t normally accept tendon injuries this month, can they?”
It was the middle of the month, and Doctor Xiang Daihong wouldn’t come down midway through the month for his rural assignment.
Tendon rupture suturing, no matter where it was, was a specialized disease type for Orthopedics and Hand Surgery, not belonging to the Emergency Department. Once Xiang Daihong arrived, Peng Haibo would call Lin Qianlong, and the Emergency Department would no longer be able to perform “tendon suturing.”
Lu Cheng naturally knew that Chen Song was a standard ‘big shot in the Emergency Department.’ In terms of emergency medicine, Xiang Daihong couldn’t even hold a candle to Chen Song.
However, when it came to tendon suturing in hand surgery, specialists were still specialists.
Even if Chen Song was an Associate Professor, and the other party was just a senior attending physician in hand surgery, their fields were different.
“Sigh…”
“Your life is really full of ups and downs.”
“Forget it, let’s just honestly be an emergency department doctor…” Chen Song replied helplessly.
No one could fault Peng Haibo’s move. Chen Song was a doctor from the Emergency Department going to the countryside; Orthopedics could also have its own doctor go to the countryside.
Moreover, Long County People’s Hospital truly had a “demand gap” in hand surgery techniques.
“Teacher Chen, where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Lu Cheng also felt a headache coming on. He had finally made some progress in hand surgery, only for these complications to arise.
On the 13th, Lu Cheng had observed Peng Kun’s suturing basic skills.
After all, he pursued graduate studies after completing his standardized training, and he specialized in clinical practice. Even if he didn’t place much emphasis on suturing basic skills, he still had some proficiency.
Although he couldn’t master tendon suturing immediately, after months of dedication and focused learning, Lu Cheng wouldn’t consider his own skills to be “unbeatable.”
“But Teacher Chen, while other techniques need to be learned, tendon suturing also needs to be practiced.”
Lu Cheng’s voice was calm: “Learning techniques is a lifelong endeavor… Doctor Xiang’s teaching visit to the countryside will last at most half a year to a year; he won’t stay in Long County permanently.”
“As long as you grasp the technique, if you can perform the surgery, you can perform it. No one can steal it from you.”
“Besides, there are so many categories of tendon suturing cases. Even if Young Master Kun receives specialized instruction, he won’t be able to master all of them.”
“At most, he’ll eat the meat, and I’ll drink the soup.” Lu Cheng’s expression was calm, his voice not annoyed, but rather analyzed with a smile.
There were many techniques for tendon suturing. Peng Kun could start with tendon suturing, or he might learn the modified Kessler, Tsuge suturing technique and replace himself, or there was the modified Tang method, the tendon weaving method, Pulvertaft weaving, and the 8-strand Krackow suture…
“If Young Master Kun can truly learn and master every type of tendon suturing for all the different zones of the upper and lower limbs, then the time invested won’t be a loss.”
“If I can’t do it at the People’s Hospital, I can go to private hospitals for side jobs. Having the skills always makes you feel secure…” Lu Cheng was not afraid of his skills going to waste.
This was Long County. Besides the People’s Hospital, there were also some private hospitals in Long County with a ‘technical gap.’ Hand surgery techniques in Long County were almost a blank slate.
He already had several years of experience as an attending physician. It was understandable for him to go out for consultations and ‘fly-knife’ surgeries. When he went out for fly-knife surgeries, patients wouldn’t need to be admitted by him; he only needed to treat them.
“The main issue is that your county has too few patients with single disease types. Otherwise, both of you could have developed it,” Chen Song sighed.
The primary reason was that he couldn’t compete with ‘Xiang Daihong’ in terms of hand surgery techniques, so naturally, he had to concede.
