Hechi releases healthcare plan

Hechi released the latest details of the city's development in healthcare at a press conference on Nov 14, highlighting the improvements that have been made in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region city as well as future plans.

The Healthy Hechi 2030 plan was released at the conference aimed at improving healthcare in the city in five areas — popularizing healthy lifestyles, optimizing services, improving healthcare security, building a healthy environment and developing healthcare industries.

The plan also detailed development goals for different periods.

The plan revealed that by 2020, the basic medical care system for Hechi should cover all rural and urban areas and that basic healthcare and sports fitness services should be available to all. It also aims to improve people's health literacy, hoping for a health index higher than the average level in Guangxi, as well as steady development in ecological and healthcare industries.

By 2030 the plan lays out that a relative perfect system of service, institution and administration is established to improve residents' health. This is detailed along with further development of the healthcare and security system, the popularization of healthy lifestyles and prosperous growth in healthcare industries.

The Hechi government hosts a press conference to provide details of its healthcare program on Nov 14.[Photo/hcwang.cn]

To better implement Healthy Hechi 2030, another nine related documents, such as opinions on deepening the reform of the health and medical sectors, were released to set up a policy system for healthcare development. At the conference, the authority also explained how to improve basic healthcare services and deal with the uneven distribution of medical resources, with measures to be carried out in three major aspects.

First is to improve healthcare infrastructure in counties and towns. The city has gained a support capital of approximately 1.77 billion yuan ($267.13 million) from superior authorities to buy medical equipment. By 2020, the infrastructure of all the county-level medical and health institutions should be up to the national standards.

Second is to improve the service ability of basic medical staff so that residents can go to the medical institution nearest to them for treatment. To achieve this goal, methods should be taken to cultivate more doctors and medical staff, such as encouraging students to study at medical colleges. Extant rural doctors should also take further study at schools.

By 2020, every village should have at least one doctor. A family doctor system should be promoted in rural areas to ensure basic medical services are available to all. At the same time, medical resources should be shared between different institutions, such as the adoption of remote diagnosis and remote training.

Third is to set up a hierarchical medical system. People who seek medical services at basic medical institutions can enjoy a higher reimbursement rate than those at higher level hospitals, to encourage people to see doctors at nearby institutions.