By: Jonathan Watts
Date: 8 April 2009
Source: The Guardian (UK)
China will build or maintain a clinic in every one its 700,000 villages over three years as part of a 850bn yuan (£84.5bn) revamp of the health care system. Basic medical coverage and insurance will be extended to 90% of the population, almost one third of whom currently meet their own health care costs. The health ministry will train 1.4 million doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners to staff village clinics and half a million health care workers in towns and cities. The government plans to build 2,000 county hospitals and build or renovate 3,700 community clinics and 11,000 health service centres in urban areas. 40% of the costs will be covered by the central government, and the rest by local authorities, with priority given to impoverished areas in central and western China.
This investment aims to upgrade neglected medical care in the countryside. In the 1960s, the government raised an army of "barefoot doctors" and the health of China's rural population was a proud boast of the Communist party. But market reforms of the late 1970s eradicated the rural co-operative insurance system and most farmers could not afford treatment, leading to clinic closures. Large health inequalities exist between rich cities and poor rural areas which have sparked protests, including a riot by 2,000 protesters in Guangan province in 2006.
