Hard to swallow
Poverty relief challenges highlighted by seriously ill child provided with little government help
Difficulties facing China’s poverty alleviation efforts have been in the spotlight recently after a reportedly impoverished Yunnan Province boy that needed medical treatment to eat again was able to pay for surgery only after his case received media coverage.
The case of Si Shunyang, a nine- year- old resident of Huize county under the city of Qujing, came into the spotlight after the media reported that he was surviving only on injections of liquid food directly into his stomach.
Around the time of Spring Festival 2016, Si was hospitalized after he accidentally drank caustic soda, a corrosive chemical, kunming. cn, a news site affiliated with the government of Yunnan’s capital, reported Friday.
Si Xingchang, the boy’s mentally ill father, told kunming. cn that after his son left the hospital he was unable to swallow food.
“I took him to the hospital in Kunming, and the doctor told me that only hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and other countries can cure my son,” Si Xingchang said.
Si later received treatment in Chengdu’s West China Hospital of Sichuan University, who told the boy’s father that an operation to restore his son’s esophagus would cost around 200,000 yuan ($ 28,930).
While Si’s family, who are reportedly living below the poverty line, was able to borrow over 100,000 yuan, they were unable to afford the treatment, kunming. cn reported, adding that Si’s health problems forced him to drop out of school.
Out of desperation, Si Xingchang turned to the media, and after the Huize local television station ran a report on the boy’s case, the family received around 200,000 yuan in donations.
Si Shunyang had surgery in the Chengdu hospital on Monday to repair his esophagus, and might be able to eat again if his recovery goes well, yunnan. cn reported on Monday.
Poverty challenges
Theoretically, the family should be able to get the government’s help without going to the media, Du Xiaoshan, a deputy director at the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday, adding that it’s the government’s responsibility to help children like Si Shunyang get medical help and continue their education.
China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission ( NHFPC) issued a guideline in July 2016, which was aimed to provide greater medical assistance to patients in rural and poor areas with serious diseases, the Sichuan Daily reported.
Wang Pei’an, deputy head of the NHFPC, said that these patients should be allowed to pay after they receive treatment.
Doctors will be organized to solve problems which can be treated in the short term; and chronic patients should receive treatment from local hospitals under the guidance of higher- level institutions, said Wang.
In March 2017, Shanghai Yodak Cardiothoracic Hos- pital and the government of Lincang city, Yunnan, established a cooperation program in which experts provide free medical assistance such as surgeries and health examinations to Linchang residents living under the poverty line, news site thepaper. cn reported.
However, Du added that although the central government has made various plans to help patients living in poverty, they cannot reach everyone due to the size of the population.
Du speculated that there could be several reasons why these beneficial policies did not help Si Shunyang.
His family may have not known to ask about these policies, or they may lack the appropriate documents to prove they are officially “impoverished.”
Moreover, Du explained, governments in places like Huize, a nationally designated poverty- stricken county, can find they are unable to help due to a lack of money.
A total of 329,000 people were living under the poverty line in Huize in 2016. The local government received 3 million yuan in poverty relief funding in 2015 but most of this went to helping 2,500 impoverished high school students, according to the Qujing government’s website.
Funds misuse
Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that misuse and corruption have resulted in the underperformance of poverty relief funding.
China’s National Audit Office ( NAO) said in November 2016 that 63.7 million yuan of funds earmarked for poverty relief projects had not achieved their expected performance.
The audit also found that, in 11 cases, violators gained a total of 9.57 million yuan in profits from various poverty relief projects.
The NAO also said in June 2016 that more than 870 million yuan of China’s poverty alleviation funds had been either left idle for more than a year or wasted.
Xia Xianzhu, head of a veterinary station in the Huize county village of Huohong, was dismissed and transferred to the judicial authorities after embezzling 331,600 yuan of animal husbandry subsidies in 2015, the Communist Party of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on
its website.