Though the above “debate” occurred between two countries, it involved the Chinese only. In 2008, we encountered a Western-provoked “International Debate”.
I mentioned earlier that since the end of 2007, Danish patients began to seek treatment in our hospital. During 2008, as many as 113 Danish patients were admitted into our hospital. Initially, Danish doctors thought that these Danish patients must be crazy to seek treatment in China, later they became doubtful and they were annoyed. They could not understand how a developing country like China could attract that many patients from a developed country. Some Danish government departments were dissatisfied with this situation because many of our Danish patients when they had gone back to their country requested for reimbursements of their medical fees under the second option. Under the second option, a Danish patient can seek medical treatment in developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, and the Danish government will bear the medical costs incurred. However, China is not included in the list. Some patients even debated with their ministers on TV on this matter. In March 2009 a series of actions took place: First, their media, mainly those which had never reported on our hospital, accused that our treatment was not well substantiated and that some patients died after returning to Denmark. Second, experts of the Danish Cancer Committee sent us a letter requesting us to provide evidence-based medical research on the therapies we used such as cryosurgical ablation. Finally, Denmark sent China a diplomatic note asking the government of China to investigate why many Danish went to China for medical treatment and whether they had been hoodwinked.
I did not fret because we were genuine. First of all, I sent to the Danish media cases of Danish patients successfully treated in our hospital. Our Danish patients also wrote to the Danish media in support of us. These were published in Danish papers. Next, we wrote a lengthy email to Danish Cancer Society citing the performance of our hospital and provided them our papers in English published overseas as well as copies of peer reviews. We also sent Dr. Niu Lizhi to Denmark to give talks on the treatment processes Danish patients in our hospital went through, how their condition improved and their survival period. All these were listed down and Dr. Niu also held discussions with Danish doctors. At the same time we invited three Danish doctors to visit our hospital to witness the treatment process.
In fact, it was learned that besides Denmark, some other foreign countries were also not happy that some of their nationals came to China for medical treatment. We are not the only hospital in China that admits and provides medical services to foreign nationals. In order to have a clear picture of the types and quality of medical services provided to foreign nationals by hospitals in China, the Chinese Ministry of Health sent out a number of investigation teams to various hospitals in China. Some time in October 2009 an investigation team made up of more than 10 experts from several domestic authorities came to our hospital. We were informed of their coming by the Provincial Department of Health only on the evening of the day before their visit. They came to our office punctually at 8 a.m. After they had listened to our briefing, they went to our medical history room and picked up at random some medical records for inspection followed by reading all the medical records of our Danish patients. At the same time they also went to our laboratory, pharmacy, all the wards and conducted random interviews with our staff and patients. Our senior officers including me did not accompany them but were on standby to provide them any materials and information they might require for the investigation. The entire investigation took two days to complete. We were not given any feedback. A specialist of the investigating team from Beijing Cancer Hospital told me: “Your hospital has done well. How good it would be if we also have such a small yet specialized cancer hospital in Beijing.”
On 3rd February 2010, the Horsens Folkeblad, a well known media from Denmark, published a long interview with a cancer patient, Jensen, on his treatment in our hospital. As before, Danish patients continued to come to our hospital.