A meeting on boosting China's primary healthcare services was held in Beijing on March 3. Lei Haichao, vice-minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

The meeting pointed out that during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, primary healthcare saw remarkable improvements in areas such as institutional and personnel development, institutional and mechanism reform, and medical service capability. These improvements contributed to the complete victory over poverty and the strategic achievements made in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting also emphasized the necessity to further implement the health policy in the new era, which prioritizes grassroots-level health promotion, and called for all-out efforts to push forward the high-quality development of primary healthcare services. 

In 2021, health authorities should strive to coordinate regular COVID-19 prevention and control measures with key health promotion tasks at the grassroots level, and boost the development of county-based, networked medical centers and community hospitals, according to the meeting. 

Meeting participants urged efforts to deliver continuous high-quality medical services at the grassroots level, constantly expand the primary healthcare talent pool, and elevate the quality of the signed-up family doctor system and basic health services in a bid to enhance people's sense of gain.