A 10,000-strong team from urban medical facilities will provide
service and training at county hospitals in impoverished areas
within three years, according to Vice Minister of Health Gao
Qiang.
Gao was speaking on Monday at a conference attended by top
medical administrators from around the nation.
The project will start this June and cover 600 hospitals in
poverty-stricken counties in the central and western regions. Ten
percent of the target hospitals will be traditional Chinese
medicine facilities.
The plan is to dispatch five senior doctors from urban hospitals
to each targeted hospital, each to serve for at least half a
year.
"The central government plans to subsidize each doctor with
24,000 yuan (US$2,900) a year," said Gao.
The doctors will be expected to treat patients on a daily basis
as well as to train staff and improve hospital management.
Another parallel project will begin this year in northwest
China's Gansu
Province.
In Gansu, a number of medical staff from hospitals above county
level will go to work for a year in clinics at lower levels.
Wang Yancheng, head of the Gansu Provincial Health Bureau, said,
"We plan to launch it in 360 clinics."
In China, more than 70 percent of medical resources -- including
hospitals, medications and doctors -- are enjoyed by urban
residents, who make up about only 30 percent of the country's total
population.
Nearly 80 percent of the rural population in China lacks any
type of medical insurance.
"Most of them are paying medical bills by themselves, bearing
the physical, mental and economic burdens," said Gao, adding that
the?Ministry of Health? will target rural areas in 2005
and expand medical coverage to include more residents of those
areas.
(China Daily January 11, 2005)