In China, violence against medical staff has drawn worldwide attention, and occurs for many reasons, as discussed previously.

As first-line heath-care workers in China, we think the absence of transparency and marketisation of Chinese hospitalisation costs are important reasons for the violence.

The Chinese government has been trying to achieve more transparency and marketisation of Chinese hospitalisation costs recently, although the price of medicine is established by the government rather than the market itself, and the process of price development has been none-transparent until now. The price of drugs and supplies is high, which can be a source of corrupt income, as recently exemplified by the China branch of British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, which has convicted of bribing officials, medical associations, hospitals and doctors, and will have to pay the Chinese government ￥3 billion (US$489 million). The price of medical services themselves is too low, meaning that the public forget that it is the medical personnel who provide them with a professional medical service. If people think that healt-care workers are selling drugs and equipment, they can think they are corrupt. Because hospital do not provide enough protection for doctors, violence against doctors has become a way for people to relieve their dissatisfaction.

The deteriorating doctor-patient relationship has a substantial negative effect on both health-care workers and patients. The price of Chinese medicine should be transparent. An increase in the medical service price and a reduction of the price of medical non-service could help to improve the doctor patient relationship in China.