Treatment opportunities for patients with intellectual disabilities in China

Visiting journalists hear an account from a family of a Bangladeshi patient who received treatment in Kunming on the quality of care and affordability

China has developed facilities for treating people with intellectual disabilities at many of its hospitals. One of these is Kunming Tongren Hospital, a leading private healthcare facility in Yunnan Province.

Shen Ling, vice president of the hospital, said a Bangladeshi family had recently sought treatment for their teenage child at the facility.

Shen shared a video message from the patient’s family during a discussion with a group of Bangladeshi journalists who went on a three-day trip to Kunming.

In the video, the patient’s father said that the family could not get the necessary treatment in neighbouring countries like India and the medical costs in some of those countries were very high. Comparatively, he was able to manage the necessary treatment at an affordable cost in China, he said.

He added that the hospital’s experts had explained the entire treatment process in detail before starting the treatment and that the family had been able to understand the procedures involved before agreeing to start treatment.

Kunming Tongren Hospital has a sufficient number of doctors and medical experts to treat children with intellectual disabilities and also has interpreters to overcome the language barrier, Shen said.

The visit to the hospital was organised at the invitation of the Chinese government to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh-China relations. A 23-member delegation led by Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, deputy press secretary to the chief advisor, visited healthcare facilities in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, from Aug 6-9.

The delegation returned to the country on Saturday.