China will ensure and improve the people's wellbeing in the course of pursuing development, further reform the medical and healthcare systems, and enhance public medical services, said a senior official with the National Health Commission.
Nowadays, China has built the world's largest healthcare system. However, the unbalanced and inadequate development of the healthcare system still needs to be addressed through reforms.
China will further reform the medical and healthcare systems, and implement a health-first strategy, according to a resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee last Thursday.
The resolution said that China will continue to expand the availability of quality medical resources, channel them toward the community level, and make sure they were better distributed among regions. The country will move faster to develop the tiered diagnosis and treatment system, propel the development of tightly knit medical consortia, and upgrade the services of community-level medical and healthcare institutions.
"The country has established 13 categories of national medical centers and 125 regional medical centers, located across 29 provinces, which allows patients to receive medical treatment without leaving their provinces. For the vast majority of cities and counties, it is required that tertiary hospitals assign specialized personnel to provide perennial medical services at second-tier hospitals at the grassroots level. For grassroots healthcare institutions, establishing closely-knit county-level medical alliances within the county area can help improve medical service in townships and even support villages further," said Lei Haichao, director of the National Health Commission.
China has a three-tier system to grade hospitals, with tertiary hospitals -- which have the largest number of beds and provide comprehensive medical services -- at the top of the system.
For the majority of people, public hospitals remain the first choice for medical treatment. The quality of service of public hospitals is directly related to the health of the people.
The plenary session emphasized that China will continue to deepen reform of public hospitals to see that they truly serve the public interests.
"Firstly, in terms of investment in public hospitals, the government needs to effectively implement the six basic policies of fiscal investment. Secondly, there needs to be a dynamic adjustment of staffing resources for public hospitals, ensuring that qualified, capable, and skilled medical personnel who can provide quality healthcare services have the opportunity to possess government jobs. We have also made corresponding designs in terms of salary systems, encouraging more people to engage in pediatrics, anesthesiology, pathology, mental health, and nursing. These are all disciplines and professions that are in demand by the public and society," he said.
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China to further reform medical, healthcare systems, enhance public medical services: official