Chapter 867 Working on Public Health 

Cai Qiong ate some vacuum-packed biscuits as he drank a concentrated cup of tea. He was staring at the monitor as he typed away on the keyboard.

Those who were involved in public health would be more motivated when faced with epidemics like SARS. They would have to work in full swing and liaise with public health departments in the whole country, and those who worked in the laboratory would have to race against time to isolate and study the virus as well as invent a vaccine. Politicians would be rallying for the cause, and every order must be obeyed.

However, in reality, most of the people involved in public health spent most of their time typing in front of a monitor.

They had to write reports, fill in documents, and explain the situation to their superiors… They also had to work on publicity and ensure that everyone in society took disease prevention measures…

Compared with clinicians who only had to face individual patients, those who worked in public health had to face society as a group. Hence, high-ranking doctors were given more room to prove their worth. However, this would give low-ranking doctors nothing but a great wave of depression.

Boredom could be said to be a common complaint among those involved in public health.

In contrast to other low-ranking doctors, Cai Qiong did find the work bearable.

He was not a person who was good with words, to begin with. Of course, he liked to talk. But he actually understood the fact that the more a person spoke, the more mistakes he made.

In the hospital, Cai Qiong actually spent most of his time working hard. It was just that he never failed to let go of any opportunity to speak and offend people.

However, work-wise, people really rarely found fault with Cai Qiong.

This might be attributed to the fact that he was not the kind who bothered with trivial matters. On the other hand, Cai Qiong worked very hard for survival purposes. Hence, even though he was at Chief Physician Li’s disposal right then and had to work on publicizing public health policies, which was a pretty meaningless task, Cai Qiong was still working very earnestly and meticulously. This was to minimize the possibilities of other people finding fault with him.

As for the vacuum-packed biscuits, he was merely trying to save money.

A doctor’s basic pay was not high. Nowadays, there were fewer illegitimate sources of income, and those below the rank of associate chief physician would have to garner the favor of their superiors if they wanted an above-average pay.

To get around this, surgeons carried out more surgeries, while internists took in more patients who were funding their own treatment. This would give them a few thousand extra RMB a month. Basically, the more they worked, the more money they got.

Unfortunately, Cai Qiong never had the opportunity to work more. The only opportunity he ever got was the opportunity to get scolded more. Of course, he always had the chance to carry out miscellaneous tasks. However, he had never gotten the chance to carry out more surgeries or take in more patients.

Truth be told, Cai Qiong was used to earning nothing but his basic pay every month. In this respect, he was basically like a public health specialist.

“Ah, the crumbs fell.” Cai Qiong shoved the rest of the biscuit into his mouth and quickly picked up the crumbs that had fallen onto the table with his fingertips. He licked those crumbs off his fingertips. He then drank another mouthful of concentrated tea and smacked his lips in contentment.

“Ahem.” Chief Physician Li faked a cough to serve as a reminder to Cai Qiong.

Cai Qiong turned to glance at Chief Physician Li. He placed his finger in his mouth and sucked it as he smiled and said, “Hello, Chief Physician Li and Doctor Zuo. Why are both of you here? Have I done something wrong?”

Chief Physician Li sighed and said as he stared at Cai Qiong’s fingertips, “You didn’t do anything wrong. We’re here to ask you out for a meal.”

“I’m not going,” Cai Qiong said without hesitation. “I don’t even know where the chef in the cafeteria came from. He couldn’t even remove the fish scales properly.”

The cafeteria in the Bazhaixiang hospital branch was merely a kitchen that was equipped with cooking utensils and a microwave oven. Its main function was for the medical staff members to heat up their own food. Since there had been a lot of people in the Bazhaixiang hospital branch lately, they hired a temporary chef. However, if a person were to use the name of a place to describe the food made by the chef, “Bazhaixiang” would be perfect.

Zuo Cidian was a very socially adept person, and it only took one glance for him to know what Cai Qiong was thinking about. He spilled the beans. “Doctor Ling will be footing the bill. You won’t need to spend a single penny.”

He would have to pay to eat at the cafeteria. Even though the food in the cafeteria was not expensive, the vacuum-packed biscuits, tea leaves, and hot water provided in the office were all free.

Zuo Cidian could not help but admire Cai Qiong a little when he saw that Cai Qiong had chosen to have vacuum-packed biscuits and tea for lunch. Back when he was still working in a town hospital, even though he jumped at every opportunity to eat free food, he was not this shameless. Hence, he praised Cai Qiong. “Biscuits with concentrated tea might taste better than the food in the cafeteria for real.”

“I know, right? We’re both experienced people.” Cai Qiong laughed out loud, and he could not help but to make another snide remark. “The food in our cafeteria is practically made for pigs. Only idiots would eat there, don’t you think so?”

He had more to say, but he held himself back. However, he had made his point very clear. Chief Physician Li, who was standing beside him, immediately glared at him. Chief Physician Li ate lunch in the cafeteria every day.

“The kitchen cooks separately for us compared to for the others. We’ll be having stewed beef with potatoes. There’ll be a few large pots of it with more than twenty pounds of beef. We’ll even be pairing the dish with rice from the countryside, which isn’t planted using any pesticide or fertilizer at all. Even the oil used to make the stew is from the countryside, extracted the traditional way…” There was a smile on Zuo Cidian’s face. “This is much better than concentrated tea and vacuum-packed biscuits, isn’t it?”

Cai Qiong gulped. “Actually, it wouldn’t do much harm to use some fertilizer or pesticide as long as it’s not over the permitted range, don’t you think so? People in the past used kitchen waste and feces as fertilizer, but the effect doesn’t seem to be better than commercially-produced fertilizer. Don’t people nowadays always say that we must always abstain from using feces as fertilizer? This is because feces might attract parasites… The oil that’s extracted the traditional way isn’t safe either. As doctors, we all know that it’s common for this kind of oil to be high in aflatoxin…”

“We’re almost getting started. Are you coming?” Zuo Cidian asked.

“Yes!” Cai Qiong was practically salivating already. He simply threw his half-eaten vacuum-packed biscuits into the trash can.

Chief Physician Li was exasperated and resigned at the same time when he saw Cai Qiong’s demeanor. He had no choice but to follow Cai Qiong and try to start a conversation with him even though there was nothing to talk about. “Are you done with the copywriting related to health education?”

“Yes. I sent you an email.”

“Alright, then. I’ll check it out later.”

Cai Qiong smiled. “There’s no rush. All the printing shops are closed right now, anyway. It’s not like there’s any place where we can conduct health education at the moment, either.”

“Still, you should get everything prepared beforehand. Also, it is a must for us to start a fever clinic.” As Chief Physician Li spoke, he looked at Zuo Cidian and asked with a smile. “What does Doctor Ling…”

“Doctor Ling supports your efforts very much,” Zuo Cidian answered without hesitation.

“That’s great.” Chief Physician Li was not surprised.

Under normal circumstances, small clinics like the fever clinic would be under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Department, and those responsible for public health would merely play a supervisory role. However, in a place like Bazhaixiang hospital branch, Chief Physician Li intended to up his game.

He was worried that the people from the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital would treat the fever clinic as their territory. If this were to happen, Chief Physician Li would have no choice but to start a gastrointestinal clinic. The gastrointestinal clinic was supposed to be the territory of the General Surgery Department. Besides, working on it would take plenty of time with lackluster results. It would also be harder to promote a gastrointestinal clinic compared to a fever clinic.

“Doctor Cai, you’ll become even busier after we start the fever clinic. But after the roads are usable, things will become easier for you. When that happens, I’ll hire some men to help you out.” Chief Physician Li started planning things.

Cai Qiong smiled and simply replied with a snide remark. “After the roads are usable, I probably won’t be of much use anymore.”

“Hey, let’s head to the table and eat.” Zuo Cidian quickly cut Cai Qiong off and led everyone into the dining room.

The moment Cai Qiong entered the dining room, he saw the handsome Ling Ran sitting under the lamp.

Ling Ran flashed a socially appropriate smile, and Cai Qiong and Chief Physician Li actually felt honored because of it.

“Since everyone’s here, let’s start eating,” Ling Ran said and tapped his stomach. He was hungry.

This action might look improper if someone else were to do it. But no matter what Ling Ran did, he still looked handsome.

Tian Qi clapped softly, and a few chefs who were wearing snow-white chefs’ uniform, snow-white toques and snow-white gloves walked in. They were holding metal pots as they walked over in a line.

Cai Qiong lowered his head to look at the large white coat he had been using as a jacket for the past few days. It was covered in stains. He took a deep breath. The stewed beef with potatoes smelled really good.

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