Home and hospital for dust-lung miners

Home and hospital for dust-lung miners

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Yangjia Hospital in remote Wuyi County in eastern China has become a home-from-home for Hu Hushen, 78, a former miner who has been suffering with "dust lung", as the disease pneumoconiosis is known, since 1976.

Hu, and his wife, have been staying at the Zhejiang province hospital for nearly a decade. He spends most of his time hooked up to oxygen to treat his lungs, ravaged by working through the 1960s and 1970s in a since-closed mine.

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

The hospital, once equipped with the latest machinery and 150 staff, is now overgrown in parts with creeping vines, broken windows and derelict rooms, including one used by staff to prepare their own meals. Falling patient numbers, a lack of funds and weak government support for local healthcare have all hit the health facility.

Spending on healthcare as a slice of gross domestic product is small at about 6 percent in 2013 compared with 17 percent in the United States, World Health Organisation data show, while there is a dangerously wide gap between rural and urban care.

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

"If we just treat this illness alone then we are putting ourselves on the road to oblivion, we need to expand what we do in all directions - it's the only way to survive," said hospital director Fu Jianghua.

Fu, who has worked at the Yangjia Hospital since 1983 when it was operated by a mine, said it was hard to get new equipment or even the money to repair things when they broke.

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

The hospital treats pneumoconiosis, a disease caused by inhaling large amounts of dust and which mainly affects coal miners. An estimated 6 million workers in China have the condition, with 20,000 new cases every year.

"Someone asked, ‘Why didn't you wear a mask?'. We did have a protective mask, but it was dry," explained Shi San'er, a patient at the hospital. "The dust flowed through both sides of my nose to my mouth. Then the dust went inside my body."

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

The facility was first built in the 1950s and expanded by the East Wind Fluorite mining company in 1962. By the 1980s it was a well-respected clinic for lung disease and had advanced equipment including X-ray machines from Japan.

Now, just 30 patients remain, often accompanied by family members who pay an extra 6 yuan ($1) a day to stay. Conditions have declined steeply since the hospital went broke in 2001 and was put under government control before being privatised.

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

The situation reflects the challenge China is facing to reform its healthcare system, which is blighted by crowded hospitals, corruption, simmering tension between patients and doctors, and steep medical bills.

"A lot of these workers can't get any compensation. They find the economic burden on themselves and their families is terrible," said Geoffrey Crothall, communications director at China Labour Bulletin.

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Family members such as Wang Ninde and patients - among them her husband, a former miner - make the best of things: cooking in makeshift kitchens, growing vegetables in allotments around the hospital buildings and playing cards to pass the time.

Hospital staff and patients said they lived together like a commune and treated each other as family.

. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Wang Tianfang, who was diagnosed with dust lung in the 1970s and has lived at the hospital for two years, said he chose to stay because of the affordable price, but also that the hospital had been built by the company he had worked for.

Sitting in bed with various bags of possession hanging on the wall behind him and a rusty blue tank of oxygen beside the bed, Wang blew smoke out of his pipe - a guilty pleasure despite his disease: "It feels like family here".

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Slideshow

The entrance to Yangjia Hospital is seen.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

The entrance to Yangjia Hospital is seen.

Pneumoconiosis patients and their relatives prepare wood for cooking.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Pneumoconiosis patients and their relatives prepare wood for cooking.

Patients and their family members pass the time after lunch.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Patients and their family members pass the time after lunch.

Former miner Wang Zhengqing, 74, was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis when he was 24 and has lived at Yangjia Hospital for ten years.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Former miner Wang Zhengqing, 74, was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis when he was 24 and has lived at Yangjia Hospital for ten years.

Two pairs of shoes are left on the windowsill.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Two pairs of shoes are left on the windowsill.

A patient and his wife are reflected in a window as they eat lunch.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

A patient and his wife are reflected in a window as they eat lunch.

Patients and their relatives play cards in a dilapidated service building.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Patients and their relatives play cards in a dilapidated service building.

A rice cooker and other possessions belonging to Wang Xinglong are seen in his room.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

A rice cooker and other possessions belonging to Wang Xinglong are seen in his room.

A book with comments and suggestions by patients and their relatives hangs of the wall.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

A book with comments and suggestions by patients and their relatives hangs of the wall.

A rooster and chicken walk about an empty room in an abandoned building.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

A rooster and chicken walk about an empty room in an abandoned building.

A pneumoconiosis patient rests between floors.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

A pneumoconiosis patient rests between floors.

Used medicine bottles and other waste are left on the stairs.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Used medicine bottles and other waste are left on the stairs.

Fu Jianghua (right) and a member of his staff talk to patients. Fu Jianghua has worked at Yangjia Hospital since 1983, when it was operated by a local mine. He is now the hospital's president.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Fu Jianghua (right) and a member of his staff talk to patients. Fu Jianghua has worked at Yangjia Hospital since 1983, when it was operated by a local mine. He is now the hospital's president.

Former miner Liu Zhonggen, 68, rests in his room. According to his wife, who also lives at the hospital, Liu arrived last year after he had a stroke. The family decided to move there because it's cheap, with insurance covering Liu’s expenses.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Former miner Liu Zhonggen, 68, rests in his room. According to his wife, who also lives at the hospital, Liu arrived last year after he had a stroke. The family decided to move there because it's cheap, with insurance covering Liu’s expenses.

Yang Yang, an X-ray technician, poses for a photograph under the red light in his lab in the radiology department, with its vine-covered walls and broken windows.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Yang Yang, an X-ray technician, poses for a photograph under the red light in his lab in the radiology department, with its vine-covered walls and broken windows.

Numbers used on X-ray images are placed on a desk.
. Zhejiang province, China. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Numbers used on X-ray images are placed on a desk.