Great Doctor Ling Ran

“Have you heard? Ling Ran is also going for the medical licensing exam this year.”

“Yes, we’ll be taking the medical licensing exam together with Ling Ran.”

“It’ll be interesting if Ling Ran can’t pass the exam.”

“Hey. Lower your voice, don’t let others hear that.”

Two resident doctors leaned against the door and chatted in low voices. It was a most interesting choice of topic for conversation.

“We can ask Ling Ran in the car later. By the way, he performed almost 1,000 surgeries, right?”

“It should be around that number, I think. Ling Ran’s M-Tang technique and Achilles tendon repair can be considered as surgical methods unique to our hospital.”

“I heard that Lu Wenbin started to practice the M-Tang technique as well.”

“Is Lu Wenbin the Doctor Lu who can make really delicious pork trotters?”

“Exactly, you didn’t even know his name, did you?”

“He didn’t write his name on the pork trotters…”

Both of them chatted as they slowly arrived at the gate of the hospital.

A big bus stopped at the hospital gate.

“Are both of you the doctors here for the medical licensing exam?” A staff from the Medical Affairs Department came down from the bus.

“Yes, we’re from the Orthopedics Department.” Both of them told the staff their names, boarded the bus, and looked around.

In the bus were all resident doctors with tired faces.

“You were on shift duty last night, right?” The new resident doctor who had just got into the bus broke the silence.

“You could say I was on shift duty AGAIN.”

“They knew we’re having our exams today, yet they still asked us to be on shift duty again.”

The resident doctors on the bus suddenly shared a bitter hatred for their common enemy.

No doctors would want to be on duty, and it was precisely because no one wanted to be on duty that most resident doctors were the ones who had to be on shift.

The doctors hated the suffering caused by working overtime very much. When they scolded their superiors as one, the resident doctors from different departments quickly became friends.

The bus trembled and started gently.

The resident doctors of the Orthopedics Department could not help but stand up. Then, they looked around the inside of the bus and asked, “Didn’t they say Ling Ran is going for the exams today? He must have arrived during predawn, right.”

The doctors on duty from the Orthopedics Department would occasionally go to the Emergency Department to receive the patients they transferred to them. If they paid slight attention to them, they would know Ling Ran’s schedule.

The staff from the Medical Affairs Department who led the team could not help but purse his lips and laugh.

The resident doctor from the Orthopedics Department saw that and asked, “Is Ling Ran not going for the exam?”

“Of course he’ll take the exam, why is he not taking it?” The staff from the Medical Affairs Department gestured with his chin and said, “Department Director Lei sent a separate car to fetch him.”

“Separate…” The resident doctor pursed his lips and threw a sarcastic comment in a monotonous tone, “He’s still having special treatment at this time…”

“Doctor Ling performed four surgeries in the morning, and they are all patients who asked him to be their surgeon. Department Director Lei was worried that he’ll be late and will therefore delay your schedule. So, he arranged a separate car to send Ling Ran to the examination hall.” The explanation by the staff from the Medical Affairs Department sounded reasonable.

The resident doctors who had not taken their medical licensing exam were not able to comment on it, but they could only feel envious, jealous ,and hateful, and said nothing about this.

Was it not very normal for surgeons to sacrifice their time for surgeries?

The resident doctors from the Orthopedics Department shook their heads and looked out the window.

A Passat passed by the bus and left. The window was opened half way. When they looked down, Ling Ran’s face could be seen.

…..

Ling Ran had really performed four designated surgeries before he headed toward the examination hall.

Nowadays, some hospitals had institutionalized designated surgery. Patients just needed to spend 300 RMB to 800 RMB, and they could just request a specific doctor to operate on them. The doctor could even receive half of the fee for the designated surgery. For a surgeon who had built his reputation, it was a high amount of extra income.

Prior to that, it was slightly difficult for patients to pick a doctor for their surgery. He or she would need to find someone from his connections before he could get the surgery.

Yun Hua Hospital had not applied the strategy in implementing charge for designated surgeries at the moment. Therefore, the designated surgeries that Ling Ran performed were all introduced by his peers.

From the point of view from a medical staff, if a doctor’s peers were willing to introduce their friends and relatives to you for surgery, it would mean that they had largely acknowledged the doctor. Generally, it was not easy for the doctors to reject such surgeries.

Naturally, Ling Ran would not turn down any surgery.

The Passat was slowly driven to the front of provincial hospital.

Changxi Province applied the system where doctors had to take their examinations in a different hospital compared to the one they worked. Since the practical skills examination was an examination that needed a location to be carried out, doctors from Yun Hua Hospital would go to the provincial hospital, while the doctors from the provincial hospital would go to Yun Hua Hospital. The invigilators consisted of doctors from Yun Hua Hospital and the provincial hospital, and there were also some senior doctors from other hospitals.

But while this was the policy, reality never once let anything go so smoothly.

The failure rate in the practical skills examination had always been low, and the doctors in Yun Hua Hospital and the provincial hospital were all the best of the best when they were recruited while they were still young. The young doctors who had just graduated from these hospitals did not have high demand for cheating in the examination.

Compared to them, the doctors from the regional hospital, especially the doctors in hospitals that ranked lower than district level and county level hospitals, were always more willing to look for various opportunities to pass the exam.

Ling Ran entered the provincial hospital and collected his number. Then, in the waiting zone, he saw a few young doctors flipping their books and making calls.

The questions of the practical skills examination in the medical licensing exam was randomly generated using the computer. Each number corresponded to a different set of examination questions.

If they had some connections to the invigilators, during the time between the moment they took the number to the moment they entered the examination hall, the examinee might be able to get the general scope of the examination question, such as whether the questions were about the heart, lungs, or skin.

The examinee could utilize this period of time to read and do revision, which was counted as their effective way preparing last minute.

Ling Ran only cast a glance at his number before he closed his eyes to rest.

He had performed four surgeries, but he did not take any Energy Serum. So, he could not help but be a little tired.

After waiting for an hour, a young nurses shouted at the door, “Number 46! Is Number 46 around?”

Ling Ran naturally looked over and stood up.

The young nurse looked at Ling Ran. After she was stunned for two seconds, her voice became very soft and gentle. “Are you number 46?”

“Yes.” Ling Ran showed the number in his hand.

“Come in, quickly.” The young nurse waved shyly. She waited for Ling Ran to enter the corridor before she closed the door gently.

The provincial hospital had prepared six rooms as the examination venue for today. Every room was equipped with dummy models and all kinds of tools. These tools were usually used as practice items by the doctors, and they were always seen during the examinations.

Compared to the doctors in large hospitals, the other young doctors in smaller hospital had way fewer resources. Most of them only used the models twice before they had to come for the exams.

Of course, real patients were better learning material than models. Any young doctor who had a chance to practice their skills on real patients would not find it too difficult to handle the practical skills examination of the medical licensing exam.

Ling Ran followed the young nurse and entered Room 4, which was in the middle.

Inside the room were two long tables and three examiners.

Ling Ran raised his head and saw someone he knew: Kong Xiangming, director of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in Yiyuan County Hospital. He was sitting in the middle among the examiners.

Kong Xiangmin looked very serious. He then slowly raised his head.

‘Huh?’

Kong Xiangming flipped his hand over to hold his chin, because his jaws had fallen slack. He stared at the number in Ling Ran’s hand, and he sank into deep thought.

‘Am I in some kind of stupid variety show?’

As the chief physician who always invited Ling Ran over for freelance surgeries, Kong Xiangming was always respectful toward Ling Ran.

However, he could obviously not treat Ling Ran respectfully in this situation.

‘What am I supposed to do, wait for Ling Ran to greet me politely and say, “Hello, teacher,” according to the procedures?’

When Kong Xiangming thought about this, he immediately stood up and chuckled, “Doctor Ling, welcome to join our practical skills examination.”

“Hello, Department Director Kong.” Ling Ran faced Kong Xiangming and showed a smile that was socially acceptable.

The doctors who sat beside Kong Xiangming felt uncomfortable, because they did not know whether they should stand or sit.

According to usual practice, the director of the Orthopedics Department of Yiyuan County Hospital was always a standing committee of the Orthopedics Division in Yun Hua City Medical Association and the committee of the Orthopedics Division in Changxi Province Medical Association. Kong Xiangming had just become a department director for less than two years, and he had to show up whenever he could. So, it was his duty to come and be an invigilator in the provincial hospital.

The other two examiners did not have such high requirements imposed on them. One was a senior attending physician, while the other one was a young associate chief physician. Both of them were people the hospital had managed to find who were slightly free after they spent a lot of effort searching for people who were free.

They had heard about Ling Ran’s legend, but they had not met him in person before. Therefore, they were still skeptical.

Kong Xiangming had already circumnavigated the long table and had his back turned to the two doctors. He smiled so much that his eyebrows were nearly upright. “I was still thinking sometime earlier that if I went to Yun Hua Hospital, I must go and meet you. I didn’t expect us to meet here today. Don’t you think that there’s something really strange about Yun Hua? Haha, hahaha…”