Forced Blood Donations in Beijing Surgery Clinics (China Hearsay smells Vampires)

How fast would an American hospital get sued if a patient was refused surgery because she couldn’t convince one of her relatives to donate ten pints of blood?  What would be the public reaction if the federal government mandated all Americans donate a pint of blood due to an emergency situation?  Answers: As fast as the intake department intern at the local malpractice firm could run over to the partners office + 15 minutes, and 2nd Amendment Patriotic, respectively.

People in China, however, have a different set of reasonable expectations when they walk into a hospital or listen to the news; and they don’t have access to the same range of remedies that people who live in America do.

Chances are that a government-mandated national blood donation program wouldn’t go over well in China either since not even the PRC is immune to the political pressure of several hundred million angry marchers.  But, there’s not much remedy left for a wronged patient in a hospital since the wrongs are often personal and even when transgressions impact a large group of people, the group is not large enough to make a dent politically.

Really, however, the government and the healthcare system are the same entity: all hospitals are government run to some extent (foreign run private hospitals can be up to 76% private owned). So what the government can do is run a limited mandatory national blood donation program through the Chinese hospitals.

And, since the government is the healthcare system, people in China who are wronged by the healthcare system have only themselves and their families to turn to for help.  Keeping this in mind, it should really not be all that shocking to you if this story – about how the Beijing hospital system has apparently approved and implemented policies to deny surgery to some patients unless they can supply their own “spare” blood from family members and, one supposes, friends of the same blood type – is pretty accurate as to what’s actually happening (keep a critical eye out though : sometimes the stories won’t square so nicely with your inferences).

I found the link on Stan Abram’s powerhouse China Hearsay blog.  Stan has geniously dubbed this “Beijing’s Vampire Policy”.

Yikes! Mandatory blood donation is a bit too much. Seems kinda ghoulish. What if the patient doesn’t have any family? What if they all have some sort of communicable disease?

And let’s face it, some people just freak out from the very idea of having a needle stuck in them. This takes the whole notion of collective responsibility and family ties too far. It might be a very Confucian policy, but it gives me the creeps.

The worst part of this, of course, is that medical treatment is being withheld. I hope that this is not being done in cases where emergency surgery is needed.

Yikes!, indeed.  But, don’t let it surprise you.  Just remind yourself that China has no common law, and that its healthcare system is a mixed bag of incentives and minimum oversight.  Remind yourself of that and you’ll be prepared for most anything you hear about Chinese hospitals.  Also, you’ll be better prepared for when you go to China because you’ll have bought travelers insurance and written down the names of all internationally recognized and traveler recommended health facilities in the places you’re visiting…right?

Thanks to “garryknight” for sharing your images with the world on Flickr!