Chinese Alliance for People Living with HIV/AIDS (CAP+) Media release for “Recommendations to Address the Issue of Poor Access to Surgical Operations for People Living with HIV/AIDS” On 17th May 2011, the Chinese Alliance for People Living with HIV/AIDS (CAP+) collaborated with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other partners to organize a press conference entitled “AIDS and Guaranteed Medical Access”. This press conference was organized to release a report that was launched by 40 HIV/AIDS organizations and written up by the Secretariat of CAP+: “Recommendations to Address the Issue of Poor Access to Surgical Operations for People Living with HIV/AIDS.” This report was written as a follow-up to an earlier report, “Challenges and Opportunities - Qualitative Survey Report on the Treatment and Living Conditions of People Living with HIV/AIDS in China”, and comprises a set of detailed policy recommendations on the topic of access to medical services for PLWHA. In this report, the causes and consequences of denied access to medical services are analyzed from a range of different angles, leading to the following three specific recommendations: 1. We recommend that the government carry out law enforcement inspection/supervision to identify cases where PLWHA have had their medical treatment evaded or refused in contravention of the Article 41 of the Regulations on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, which states that “Medical care institutions shall not reject or make excuse to HIV positives or AIDS patients in treating their other diseases.” We further recommend that the inspection/supervision results are announced to the general public. 2. We recommend that the government set up a special organization to act as a supervisory watchdog that can speedily resolve the legally justified claims of PLWHA. 3. We recommend that the government cancel the designation of “HIV/AIDS designated hospitals” and incorporate HIV/AIDS treatment into conventional health care systems, so as to ensure that HIV/AIDS patients can enjoy equal access to medical services, and eliminate instances of discrimination within the healthcare profession.

The report also indicates that excessive and unnecessary HIV testing is one of the reasons why PLWHA suffer from reduced access to medical services. This is in contravention of the Regulations on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, which emphasizes the principle of voluntary HIV testing. The report therefore further recommends that the Ministry of Health shall organize experts to determine and publicly announce a list of diseases for which HIV antibody test must be conducted prior to surgical operations, and shall explicitly prohibit the health facilities from determining or expanding the scope of tests to be conducted prior to surgical operations. Meng Lin, the Coordinator of the Secretariat of CAP+, says: “The refusal of access to medical treatment for PLWHA doesn’t only occur for complex surgical procedures, it also occurs for a number of relatively simple problems such as hemorrhoids, cleaning and stitching of external

wounds, and fractures.” The Chief Physician for Infection Diseases at Beijing Youan Hospital, Zhang Ke, states: “Infectious disease hospitals do not possess the same broad range of departments and treatments as general hospitals, yet the average general hospital believes that PLWHA should automatically be treated by specialized infectious disease hospitals.” Evidently, the existence of “HIV/AIDS designated hospitals” has become an excuse for some medical facilities to evade or refuse to provide routine medical services. The Director of the Legal Policy Committee for the China Association for the Prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS, Li Dun, opines: “According to Chinese law, all hospitals should receive and treat patients.” 130 representatives from the State Council AIDS Working Committee Office (SCAWCO), the Ministry of Health, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, academic research institutions, international organizations, HIV/AIDS civil society organizations, PLWHA and the media all took part in this meeting. Special thanks from the Ford Foundation, the China Population Welfare Foundation support!

Contacts for CAP+ Secretariat: Meng Lin, Telephone: 010 63297977/63294803 E-mail: [email protected]

Zhu Lin