Home dialysis cooperative shut down in Beijing's Tongzhou District

Beijing Times
March 30, 2009

The government has ordered a group of renal patients to shut down their home dialysis operation, today's Beijing Times reported. The group's operation in Beijing's Tongzhou District has been called illegal, and the patients have been ordered to return home.

As described in a report on the group that ran in the March 26 issue, the 10 members all are suffering from chronic kidney failure, a condition that typically requires regular dialysis treatment to sustain the patient's life.

Two patients, Wang Xinyang and Zhang Weidong, originally pooled their money to buy the first dialysis machine. They started off using the machine for themselves, and later on began to provide treatment to others at a price far lower than regular hospitals would charge.

The newspaper's report brought the group both positive and negative attention. On March 29, they were visited by two people with kidney conditions who left a donation of 20,000 yuan. On the same day, however, they were also visited by officials from Beijing's health authorites.

The newspaper explains:

Yesterday morning 11 o'clock, Yu Luming, vice-director of Beijing's Health Department, and Li Yang, vice-director of Beijing's Health Service Supervision Unit, visited the self-help dialysis unit accompanied by officials from Tongzhou's health department.

They investigated the medicine and the source of the medical equipment. After discussing it among themselves, the health authorities decided to give the patients medical tests. One or two free sessions of dialysis would be considered for those patients who required immediate treatment.

Because the situation took place out of a need for self-preservation, law enforcement departed from normal protocol to act in more humanitarian way, but it is clear that the practice is illegal and the group must be shut down.

"They were ordered to stop their treatments. Considering the fact that a direct ban could threaten their lives, the enforcement is a little different for these patients, but the place will still be shut down in a few days."

The health authorities have asked the ten patients to contact their own local governments and return home to find a solution to their problems.

At 5 pm, officials from the district Health Department and Public Security Bureau visited them again. They said they would continue to talk with the patients to find a solution.

The patients refused to return home.