YOSHU - An ambulance crew in Jilin Province was been sacked for playing mahjong while on duty at the base.

The director of the Health Bureau in Yushu City apologized to the public for the negligence in management, Jilin-based New Cultural View reported the other day.



"I should take responsibility. I'm sorry," the director Zhao Debin was quoted as saying. "The case showed we have a loophole in management."



The crew comprised two nurses, a doctor and a driver. The doctor, surnamed Zhang, told the newspaper he was on a standby shift that day.

The ambulance center has three daily shifts. The standby shift will work in an emergency if the regular shift has not returned from a call-out, Zhang said.



He said they just played for several minutes. One of the two nurses said the winner would have invited the four to dinner that night, so they played with money.



The director of the ambulance center was also sacked. Zhao Jianguang had worked as the center's director for more than 10 years. He said he didn't know anything about the case.



Zhao said staff would attend to calls within three minutes. The center had never delayed a call-out.



The incident was discovered by a reporter from New Cultural View who was doing an interview in the center. As well as the four who were playing mahjong, one man was watching them and another man was smoking on a bed, the reporter said.

(ShanghaiDaily.Com)