By Li Bin, minister and secretary of leading Party group of the NHFPC

On the occasion of the arrival of the 2015 New Year, I, on behalf of the NHFPC, wish all health and family planning workers nationwide a happy New Year and extend my sincere sympathy to Chinese foreign aid medical teams that work on the frontline of health care battles abroad. I also convey my heartfelt gratitude to Party committees, governments and relevant departments at all levels; the public; all sectors of society; and news media that have given long-term care and support to health and family planning reform and development.

Looking back on 2014, the national health and family planning system comprehensively carried out the spirit of the 18th National Congress, the third and fourth plenary sessions of the of 18th CPC Central Committee, as well as General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches. It earnestly implemented the decisions and deployments by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, joined efforts, overcame difficulties, pushed forward steady health and family planning reform and development, and achieved positive results. President Xi Jinping sent a letter of consolation to the Africa aid medical team, which was a great encouragement to us.

We sought improvement in stability, insisted on using reform ideas and methods to solve problems, and conducted institutional innovations. Substantive progress was made in deepening medical reform. Public hospital reform was accelerated. Comprehensive reform of county-level hospitals was pushed forward in 1,011 counties. The number of national pilot cities for urban public hospitals reform grew to 34. The system where doctor's salary was linked to drug prescriptions was eliminated, and efforts were spent building a new operation mechanism. We continued to improve the universal health care system, established a serious illness insurance and disease emergency rescue system, formed a preliminary safeguard mechanism for the public to seek medical treatment, consolidated the national essential medicine institution, constantly enhanced the community-level service network, made an important breakthrough in talent team building, and saw non-government-funded hospitals thrive. The separate two-child policy was smoothly executed. Fertility was kept at a steady low level. Provincial health and family planning institute reform was completed without a hitch, and significant achievements were made in function shifts.

We have earnestly lived up to our holy responsibilities in serving public health, pushed forward transformation of the development model from treatment to health, and continuously improved service quality and level. Significant achievements have been made in Ebola haemorrhagic fever domestic control and in helping Africa fight the disease. Prevention and control of major health emergencies was implemented in a forceful, orderly and effective way. The national basic and major public health service projects were smoothly carried out. Major disease prevention and control work has continued to be advanced, and comprehensive supervision and food safety work were steadily implemented. Urban and rural medical and health service capacity was constantly improved. Population health information construction was accelerated. Basic family planning work was continuously strengthened. Maternal and child health service capacity increased significantly, and traditional Chinese medicine has seen increasing features and advantages.