Aiming to provide basic medical service to 900 million residents in
vast rural areas, China has begun to streamline a health care
network that was brought to the verge of collapse in the past
decade.
The network, based on state-funded medical centers in rural towns
and villages, will also be composed of private hospitals and
clinics with trained staff and standard services.
More farmers will be able to afford medical services if they join a
pool system, known as "cooperative medical care," which collects
funds from individuals, collectively-owned businesses and
governments.
"It is very important and urgent to establish an affordable and
effective network of primary health care in rural areas," said
Zhang Wenkang, the country's health minister.
He
said an increasing number of rural residents are victims of
"unfairness" while receiving medical services.
The rocketing price of medical service is the main health care
worry for many farmers as the income gap in urban and rural areas
continues to widen.
Only 20 percent of the nation's medical resources, such as
hospitals and doctors, are estimated to be shared by rural
residents, who account for 70 percent of the total population.
A
study by the Ministry of Health indicated that in 1998, 37 percent
of all ill farmers did not visit the doctor, and 65 percent of
patients who should have been hospitalized failed to receive
treatment simply because they were unable to pay.
"Such ratios are still growing," Zhang said.
In
China's planned economy era, the government provided urban
residents with welfare "from the cradle to the grave," including
health care.
The health of rural people was also guaranteed by the old
cooperative medical care system, to which farmers paid a little to
enjoy basic services from grass-roots doctors.
As
the country was on track to becoming a market economy, the system
could no longer be sustained, mainly due to shrinking investment.
The Chinese gradually learned that seeing a doctor was no longer
welfare but a way of spending money.
However, the health minister stressed that the government is
responsible for ensuring fairness for the disadvantaged by building
a reasonable health care system.
The State Council, China's cabinet, has mapped out a plan of reform
aiming to improve medical services in rural areas. Local
governments are allowed to conduct different trials.
"Our aim is to set up a system to provide basic services for
treatment, disease prevention and health promotion for every
farmer," Zhang said.
The work will focus on the control of infectious diseases and the
prevention of non-infectious chronic illnesses such as tumors and
diabetes.
Special attention is to be paid to health care for children, women
and the elderly, as well as to the improvement of drinking water
and sanitation.
Medical workers in rural areas are required to conduct health
education activities to promote awareness of healthy
lifestyles.
The central government is formulating policies for the management
of township hospitals, investment in the rural health care sector
and the training of countryside doctors, to regulate the
service.
(Xinhua News
Agency January 25, 2002)