Medical and Health Services in China

(scio.gov.cn)

Updated: 2014-06-13

The reform of public hospitals has been carried on in an orderly way. In 2010, the Chinese government started pilot reforms of public hospitals in 17 state-designated cities and 37 province-level districts; and positive progress has been witnessed in improving services, innovating institutions and mechanisms, strengthening internal management and speeding up the creation of a situation in which hospitals are established and run in diversified forms. In 2012, the government launched a pilot comprehensive reform of county-level public hospitals, aiming to improve rural system of medical services with the county hospitals playing the leading role, and enabling 90% of the population in a county to see doctors. So far, over 600 counties in 18 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government have been included in this reform. The government has worked hard to improve medical services, optimize the allocation of medical resources, and enhance the medical capabilities of weak areas and weak fields. The capabilities of key clinical specialties in regional medical centers and county-level hospitals to deliver medical services have been enhanced, and the mechanism of division of responsibilities and cooperation between public hospitals and community-level medical institutions is being studied and formed. The government has intensified efforts in the creation of a situation of establishing and running hospitals in diversified forms, encouraging and guiding non-governmental funds to establish both for-profit and non-profit medical institutions. By 2011, there were 165,000 medical institutions established with non-governmental investment, including 8,437 private hospitals, accounting for 38% of the national total. Doctor-appointment service, time-phased outpatient service and high-quality nursing service that bring benefits and convenience to the people have been introduced nationwide. The fast price growth of medicine has been contained. In comparable prices, the growth rates of average outpatient and inpatient costs in public hospitals has decreased year by year in the past three years, and that of 2011 went down by eight percentage points from that of 2009, reaping initial results in expense control for public hospitals.

The new round of medical reform has brought substantial benefits to both urban and rural residents. Access to basic public health services has become much more equitable; the gap between urban and rural areas and between regions has been narrowed in medical development; medical services in rural and remote areas with backward facilities and weak capabilities have been remarkably improved; medical services have become more affordable and accessible; and fewer and fewer people are becoming poor or return to poverty because of illness.

III. Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment, and Health Emergency Management

Since the founding of New China, the Chinese government has persisted in the principle of "prevention first and integrating prevention with treatment" and continuously intensified efforts in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. By preventive inoculation, patriotic health campaigns and other prevention and control measures, China has succeeded in bringing down the morbidity of infectious diseases and brought their spread under control. China has basically brought under control the epidemics of such diseases as plague, cholera, kala-azar and leprosy since the 1950s. In 2011, the morbidity of Class A and B infectious diseases was kept at a low level - 241.4 per 100,000 people. All these measures help to safeguard the Chinese people's health and life.