The specially trained “family doctors,” - some of them trained in secondary medical schools, some trained by doctors from Peking Union Medical University - in Beijing’s 205 community health service centers provide basic health care for 80 percent of the city’s residents, according to Deputy Director of the Beijing Health Bureau Jin Dapeng.
Apart from medical treatment, the community health centers also provide a series of related services including advice on disease prevention, recovery, health protection, health education and family planning.
All centers are carrying out a series of measures, 15 in all, including offering such services as providing health hotlines and health cards, according to the Beijing Morning Post.
Sickbed priority in the centers is given to disabled people and senior citizens.
Beijing Zhongguancun health center has 23 of these special family doctors. The residents telephone the doctors when they have problems and the doctors either immediately go out to treat the patients or answer questions over the telephone.
Treatment of chronic diseases costs China 41.9 billion yuan (US$5.1 billion) in 1994, the latest year for which statistics have been provided. And it is estimated that the cost reached 121.6 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) for 2000, according to the paper.
Set up primarily to serve the 1.88 million senior citizens over 60 in Beijing, the centers keep health records, measure blood pressure, provide prescriptions and give lectures to senior citizens free of charge.
According to a survey conducted by Beijing Geriatrics Medical Research Center, 71.4 percent of Beijing senior citizens over 60 suffer from chronic diseases.
A survey of 1,500 Beijing residents reported that 84.7 percent of the elderly were willing to be treated by community health services, according to China Quality Promotion Weekly.
Lu Jinfeng, a doctor in the Heyi community health center, makes regular rounds to check her elderly patients’ health, according to Legal Daily.
She also tries to cheer them up, which she said is as important as the medicine.
A total of 152 cities in China began to experiment with community health services in 1999, according to China Quality Promotion Weekly.
The Ministry of Health said a nationwide community health service system will be in place by 2010. It is predicted that the family doctors will provide 70 percent of the medical services.
(China Daily 01/04/2001)
