AIDS patients being left with nowhere to go

Posted on : 2014-03-05 17:06 KST Modified on : 2014-03-05 17:06 KST
As AIDS becomes more treatable, patients are living longer, creating a need for more long-term care
 Gyeonggi Province
Gyeonggi Province

By Kim Hyo-sil, staff reporter

Her son has been bedridden for more than two years. AIDS and associated brain ailments have left the 44-year-old unable to move on his own. The mother, 73-year-old surnamed Kim, had him admitted in 2011 to Sudong Yonsei Sanitarium in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. Some of the things the hospital staff did concerned her - when they failed to clip his fingernails and toenails regularly, or when they responded to high fevers and other dangerous episodes by simply praying. But she wasn’t in a position to be choosy about care. Treatment cost less at Hospital S because it received around 240 million won (US$224,000) a year in government support to care for AIDS patients. Kim herself suffers from diabetes and hypertension and is responsible for her 91-year-old mother, so every penny mattered.

The problem occurred last month, when the sanitarium told her she had to make a decision: either pay 500,000 won (US$467) more in nursing costs or take her son home.

“I fell on some hard times, and I’ve been making ends meet helping out at my younger sibling’s store,” she said. “Now that store’s almost at the point of closing down. I can’t get the money, but I can’t tell my son I can’t afford the nursing costs because I’m worried about the effect it would have on him. But there’s nowhere else I can take him.”

K is not alone. Around 40 other AIDS patients at the sanitarium and their families are worried sick about where to go next.

In 2009, Hospital S became the country’s only government-designated long-term care center for AIDS patients. Last year, human rights groups lodged complaints about sexual harassment and abuses of patient human rights. In December, after a survey, the government decided to withdraw the designation. This, in turn, prompted the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to cut off their support as of this month.

The problem now is that over the past two months, the government has not yet produced a follow-up plan. It provided temporary support for nursing care in January and February, but that stream is now poised to dry up completely. Meanwhile, no new care facility has been selected.

“Whenever the patients get together, all they talk about is ‘Where are you going now?,’” said Lee, a patient at the hospital until recently. “None of them have any resources, there‘s nowhere stable in their lives. They’re scared to death.”

Late last month, when Lee was hospitalized at the National Medical Center for injuries sustained in a fall, the sanitarium discharged him and had his belongings delivered to the NMC. Lee currently subsists on Basic Livelihood Security payments.

The government’s explanation is that it is having difficulty designating a new care center because of social prejudices about AIDS.

“We’ve been looking for new facilities from late last year,” said a KCDC source on condition of anonymity. “We’re in talks now, but they aren‘t agreeing to it because the other patients object.”

Experts said the government should work on developing a more systematic plan for long-term care for patients, if only to manage the disease.

“Developments in AIDS treatments have added more than 50 years to patient life expectancies,” said Shin Hyung-shik, who heads the NMC’s infectious disease center. “With more and more older patients, there‘s more of a need for long-term care.”

“AIDS patients can be hospitalized with other patients with almost no threat of contagion,” Shin added. “I think there’s just prejudice because a lot of medical staff don’t have experience with treatment.”

 

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