Healthcare In Crisis: China unveils health care reform measures

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

China unveils health care reform measures

Responding to growing public criticism of soaring medical fees, lack of access to medical services, poor doctor-patient relations, China will launch a pilot program to reform public hospitals.

China wants to provide universal medical service to 1.3 billion people. For that to happen, Health Minister Chen Zhu says state-run hospitals must be overhauled. Chen also told a national health work meeting on Thursday that county-level hospitals need to be beefed up.

Chen Zhu, Chinese Minister of Health, says, "The central budget supports the construction of about two thousand county-level hospitals in the next three years. Work will begin in 2009. The goal is to ensure each county has at least one hospital of national standard."

China has more than 16-hundred counties. In order to upgrade hospital infrastructure, the ministry plans to build or expand two or three central clinics in each county. That would mean five thousand central clinics across the country. This plan follows another centrally budgeted program to build 29 thousand township clinics, scheduled for completion in 2009.

In the next three years, the ministry will launch trial programs in some state-run hospitals, and more government funds will be invested to upgrade infrastructure, buy medical equipment, train doctors, perform research and cover health care costs for retirees.

Chen Zhu says, "the government will also give special subsidies to hospitals providing public health services such as disease prevention, inoculation and health education."

The other areas include medical insurance, basic medicine, grassroots medical service and public health service. The minister says the entire official plan will be issued in the near future.

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Statistics Collection

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