Beijing will spend 2 billion yuan (US$250 million) over the next
three years to establish a community clinic service following
successful trial operations in other cities.
All urban and rural areas will be covered by clinics by the end
of this year, said Deng Xiaohong, deputy director of Beijing
Municipal Health Bureau.
To achieve the goal, nearly 1,000 more clinics need to be built
or renovated.
Deng told a conference over the weekend that more after-care
work, including medical check-up facilities, training facilities
and work performance systems would be put in place over the next
two years.
As of the end of March, some 176 community clinics, and over
2,250 healthcare stations, had been established in five districts
in Beijing.
They will focus on controlling four chronic conditions,
including high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes and coronary heart
disease.
"Community clinics are to be made capable of treating various
minor diseases and chronic diseases as well.
"People in the future will not have to rush to big hospitals and
pay high prices to get treatment," said Deng.
In Shanghai, where a community healthcare system has been in
operation for some time, people have already begun to reap the
benefits.
Bringing a health service to office workers is now a fact in
Shanghai.
Echo Liu, who works in human resources at L'Oreal China, said
the Jing'an Temple Community Health Care Centre sent nurses to the
company, helping its 400 employees get flu vaccination last
year.
"Due to time pressure because of our work schedule, it's very
difficult to get everybody to hospital to get vaccinated," she
said.
Since 2003, the centre has pioneered health services medical
checkups, vaccination and health consultations in workplaces.
These are mostly in the prosperous Nanjing Road area and include
the Shanghai Centre, the Hilton Hotel and L'Oreal.
The development of community clinics in Guangzhou tells another
story.
Acupuncture, cupping and massage, and other traditional Chinese
medicine (TCM) techniques are carried out by nurses in patients'
homes.
TCM hospital
The district of Liwan was the first to set up a district-level
TCM hospital in Guangzhou.
In 2004, the Liwan government invested 94.38 million yuan
(US$11.6 million) to launch a TCM community network, setting up
three TCM hospitals.
Guangdong Province aims to provide TCM services at all health
centres by 2010 to improve services for the rural population, said
Peng Wei, vice-director of Guangdong Provincial Health Bureau and
director of the Guangdong Administration of Traditional Chinese
Medicine.
"To make healthcare more affordable to the public is our
long-term mission," said Peng.
The successful experience in Liwan District is to be promoted,
he said.
In Guangdong, 91 percent of counties have TCM hospitals, 74
percent of towns have TCM departments in their health centres, and
59 percent of villages provide TCM services at their clinics.
A series of training schemes will be available to rural TCM
practitioners this year.
However,
Guangdong is still in the preliminary stages of building up
these services, Peng said.
TCM has yet to fulfil its full healthcare role, and there is
still a way to go to reduce individuals' medical bills, he
said.
People's worry
In east China's
Jiangsu Province, the public still does not know whether to
visit community clinics or big hospitals, partly because of the
fear of imbalanced medical resources and expertise.
The provincial government has put forwards regulations to
differentiate between medical insurance rates for big hospitals and
community clinics.
This aims to encourage more people to choose community clinics,
which are far less expensive.
The province also encourages experienced doctors from big
hospitals to work at community centres for a time.
Services and facilities in each community clinic are evaluated
every year, and health bureaus give clinics financial help
according to their performance.
(China Daily April 3, 2006)