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Agony of cancer patients goes beyond the disease
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A group of shabby buildings tucked away in thin woodland adjacent to the Beijing Cancer Hospital houses a unique community called cancer island.
The ashen faces, bald heads, wheelchairs and labored body movements are telltale, barely disguising the plight of people who battle not only disease but also social indignity. This is a place where cheap rentals are available to out-of-town cancer patients seeking medical treatment in the capital.
So-called cancer islands, both large and small, can be found today near almost every major cancer treatment center in China’s big cities. They underscore a growing problem: too few beds, too many patients.
The cancer island in Beijing was once just an ordinary community of about 50 residents that got left behind in the city’s rapid redevelopment programs. Landlords in the area seized the advantage by illegally expanding buildings to cram in more people.
It’s a captive market, with the Beijing Cancer Hospital next door and the General Hospital of the People’ Liberation Army Air Force only two bus stops away. These facilities draw patients from far and wide, many of whom can’t afford to stay in more salubrious accommodation while they wait for doctors’ appointments or radiation and chemotherapy treatment.
Greedy owners of houses and apartments subdivided their homes in tiny rooms. They advertise the rooms in leaflets posted on walls in the neighborhood. In just a few years, the community has become a string of nameless hotels.
There are about 3 million cancers patients diagnosed every year in China, leading to about 2.2 million deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s 2014 Global Cancer Report. The International Agency for Research on Cancer forecasts that number will rise to 5 million, with 3.5 million deaths.
“The cancer growth rate in China in the last 20 years has been higher than in most other countries,” said Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.
He cited several possible reasons, including an aging Chinese population, the popularity of smoking, severe air pollution and other environmental hazards.
Many Chinese with cancer don’t believe they can get the specialized care they need at general hospitals, so they seek out facilities that specialize in cancer treatment in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
That often means traveling far from hometowns and enduring extended stays. Specialized hospitals simply don’t have enough beds to accommodate the demand. That forces patients to find somewhere nearby to live. Health insurance doesn’t cover those costs.
A room of less than 15 square meters in the cancer island charges about 80 yuan (US$13) a day. Amenities are spartan. There is a bed, a table and a television. Renters on the same floor share a bathroom and kitchen.
“We don’t have much choice but to stay here,” a member of a cancer patient’s family told Tencent News. “The hospital is full. We can’t afford to stay anywhere else.”
The cramped quarters, often with piles of garbage outside, have to house both patients and any accompanying family. The only consolation, if there is any, is the close proximity to the hospital and sometimes the camaraderie of fellow renters suffering the same scourges of cancer.
Liu Yaoxian, a 48-year-old, left a poor village in inland China a few months ago to bring his wife to Beijing. She is suffering from lung cancer. They rent a room in Cancer Island.
“We have already spent 60,000 yuan on treatment,” Lin told Tencent News. “Our finances are dwindling, and we are surviving now only on charity and loans from family and friends.”
He said all the money and the degrading accommodation will be worth it if his wife recovers. But the prognosis isn’t good. The cancer has spread to both lungs, and chemotherapy has severely hampered her ability to walk. There is no choice but to stay.
According to the Public Health School of Harvard University, China will spend 5.6 trillion yuan in the next 15 years on cancer medical care.
That poses a big challenge for the nation’s healthcare system in terms of both cost and facilities.
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