China to further reform medical, healthcare systems, enhance public medical services: official

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.

China to further reform medical, healthcare systems, enhance public medical services: official

Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit resonated with the common aspiration of more than 2.8 billion Chinese and African people and demonstrated China's firm will of moving forward hand-in-hand with Africa along the path of development, revitalization and modernization, several participants at the event have said.

In his speech on Thursday, Xi proposed that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China be elevated to the level of strategic relations, and that the overall characterization of China-Africa relations be elevated to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.

He also announced that the Chinese government will provide 360 billion yuan (about 50.8 billion U.S. dollars) of financial support to Africa over the next three years.

"Everyone was happy to hear those news, so everyone was clapping. So now we are going to a higher level of relations between China and Africa," said Hamidou, a counselor at the Embassy of Comoros in Beijing.

"China understands Africa's urgent desire to advance modernization. We can learn a lot from China's development," said Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso Karamoko Jean Marie Traore.

Xi also suggested 10 partnership actions for modernization that China will take together with Africa in the next three years to deepen China-Africa cooperation and spearhead modernization in the Global South.

"President Xi, through his long vision of the needs of countries and his interest in supporting development, has offered this as a real vehicle to promote exports of Africa to China, which is a huge market," said Alaa Ezz, secretary general of the Union of African Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture, and Professions (UACCIAP).

"As he told this morning, we have many projects in digitalization, in capacity building, in health centers, support for health, for infrastructure, in the framework of the Belt and [Road]. And we think that we are very satisfied with this partnership. This is a win-win partnership," said Gabriel Mbairobe, Cameroon's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, the 2024 FOCAC summit brought together leaders from China and over 50 African countries, who highlighted the common pursuit of China and African countries in realizing modernization.

During the summit, both sides unanimously adopted two important documents -- a declaration on jointly building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, and an action plan of the FOCAC for the next three years.

Xi's speech at FOCAC summit resonates with people's common aspiration: participants