BEIJING -- China's National Health Commission and other authorities on Monday issued a set of guidelines to improve the country's critical care medical services capacity.

The guidelines set the goal of providing 15 intensive care hospital beds per 100,000 people by the end of 2025, including both comprehensive-use and discipline-specific ICU beds, as well as 10 hospital beds that can be converted for intensive care use per 100,000 people.

As an important measure to enhance treatment capacities when responding to major public health emergencies, the move is expected to strengthen intensive care medical services on both the city and county levels, according to the document.

The guidelines also outline the need for future efforts to expand related professional teams.