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Corruption, Privatisation Erode Chinese Health Care

by Catherine Sampson
***China's socialised medical system has made great strides since the revolution in 1949. Life expectancy figures have shot up from 35 to 60 years in four decades. Today, however, China's health-care system is in disarray. As Gemini News Service reports, corruption, neglect by the state and a rising tide of privatisation are eroding the quality of medical services in the world's most populous country
ONE of Beijing* great achievements is that tn 40 years of communist rule, life expectancy has almost doubted — from 35 years to 60 However, the days are tong gone when China s slopped to ponder their profit margin
During the Cultural Revofa-tion In the late Sixties the removal of a giant tumour from a worker’s belly wa* hailed as a victory for proletarian med iefne.
Recently, state-run newspapers have had to warn consumer* against a rash or mira <-lc cures, such as the "magic chair.' which are flooding the market but are of dubious cffica<-y
Meanwhile. Chinese companies with an eye on a potentially huge market at home and abroad are busy producing medicines which claim to kill the AIDS virus. You can gargle with them, spray them on your body, put them in your bath, or pclish apples with them Some are perfumed.
Shenglu spray, which comes In a discreet perfume bottle, and which claims to kill the AIDS virus within 30 second*. is made by a company which uaed to produce door and window frames
Love Solution, which makes similar claims, la made of in cn-dtenta including "margarita Ifquld. glycerine and waler" and Is produced by a condom far lory. Neither is yet being exported.
United States Food and Drug Administration regulations are so far foiling the export plans of another company. Treating AIDS rrtlh Chinese Herbs (TACH), on the grounds that there is no proof that it works.
Company chairman Wang XlannUn say* tha( tn 1990. arxl again in 1991. he sold 930,000 (Sia 5.3 yuan) worth of TACH tp foreigners at the Canton trade fair.
Wang can offer no statistic* to back up his claim that TACH, made of ingredients which Include citrus peel, angelica and chrysanthemums, relieves Ihc symptoms of AIDS
One doctor Is offering the drug to AIDS sufferers Illegally in Canada at a special offer trial price Should TACH establish a market abroad, Wang says the price will go up again. "If you •ell too cheaply." he says, "people will think it’s no good."
China's new breed of medi cal entrepreneur* do not miss a trick. 1Even the official press publishes horror stories, from middlemen taking a cut on blood sales to salesmen who offer illegal ultra-sound scans telling pregnant women whet her they aho-.-ld expect a girl
Nor docs such dtrty dealing stop al the gates lo the state medical system. Officially, the state guarantees free medical care lo state employers
Many people say. however, that corruption Is endemic within the health care system, with doctors and nurse* expecting bribe* for even the most necessary treatment, especially surgery
Health care staff rarely d« mand bribe* openly, but pu Uenla know the *corc and arc too airuld of the conacqucra i * not to hand over cash or. In some r»a». a tetevtoton *cl
An official newspaper told how in one hospital surgeons and nurses *crubbed down before an operation and then raise tneir hands above their heads to keep them clean tn
Then they refused lo enter the operating theatre until the patient’s relatives had stuffed money into their pockets The going rate ts about 500.yuan, or about two and a half months average wage. When challenged, doctors defend themselves by saying that they arc underpaid at only about one yuan for several hours overtime. In the countryside. many barefoot doctors lake extra Jobs because they cannot survive on a doctor's
Some doctors over-prescribe antibiotics because they make money from the sate of drugs. Unnecessary prescript tion of antibiotics led to deaf ncs* among many Chinese children.
Some private en treprcncur*. seeing the money to be made-, have set up their own clinics. Earlier this year. 16.466 private .and collectively-owned clinics srere ■closed nationwide because they were unlicensed or had overcharged
Only 12.S per cent of' private clinics had met state standards
The ever growing number of people who move outside Ihc slate sector Into private business have lo foot their cn lire medical bill*, not ju»t the bribes.
Western experts say that the soclaHsi health care sys Icm reached Us peak In the curly eighties and haa since suffered from a lack of Investment because It I* not seen as a productive sector The army and other large-scale enter prises have their own, self e-ontainud health care systems.
In the countryside, how cvw. rural reforma have bro ken down the old. coitectivrly-operated, free mcdfeal system, and most people must now pay for their treatment.
Belter-qualified personnel and equipment are only available for villagers who are referred for treatment In a township clinic. — (GEMINI NEWS)
(Cathrine Simpson is a British Journalist in Beijing)