BEIJING — An initiative that pairs China's top-class hospitals and hospitals in impoverished counties has helped improve service capability and management of the latter since the launch of the program in 2016, according to the National Health Commission.

A total of 1,007 top-level hospitals have assisted 1,172 county-level hospitals under the scheme, and 832 county-level hospitals have been connected to the telemedicine network, showed data from the commission.

The program has enabled local patients to receive treatment from experts from the country's most premium hospitals. As of the end of 2020, 118,000 medical personnel had been dispatched, who had provided medical services to more than 55 million local outpatients and conducted over 1.9 million surgeries.

Under their support, the hospitals in impoverished counties established more than 3,700 key special clinics.