Regional medical centers expand healthcare access

Setting up national and regional medical centers and rolling out paired-assistance programs between urban and rural areas have become the focus of China's recent efforts to expand access to quality medical services nationwide, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

Li Dachuan, deputy director of the commission's medical administration department, said during a news conference the country has set up 13 national medical centers that are aimed at carrying out diagnosis and treatment of rare and severe cases of specific disease categories and playing a leading role in researching complicated therapies and promoting advanced treatment.

The most recent such center was the National Center for Orthopedics that was set up in late January and based at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital.

Jiang Xieyuan, president of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, said during the launch ceremony that the center will ramp up research into robot-assisted, innovative treatment, conduct clinical trials on novel drugs and establish a database on treatment outcomes for hip fractures among the elderly, osteoporosis and other orthopedic diseases.

Li said the top health body has also worked with the National Development and Reform Commission to plan the establishment of 76 regional medical centers in thinly resourced areas.

Regional medical centers aim to provide patients with quality medical treatment closer to their homes, according to the commission.

He added that regional medical centers have introduced more than 1,400 types of treatment to provinces that were unable to access them locally, significantly lowering the number of cross-provincial hospital visits.

Li Zhiyuan, vice-president of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, said they have helped set up three regional medical centers in Yunnan, Henan and Guangdong provinces, and have launched a series of partnership programs for discussing patient cases together and offering guidance on surgeries so as to channel the center's advanced medical technologies to more regions.

Li Dachuan, from the National Health Commission, said that paired-assistance programs between top-tier hospitals in cities and county-level clinics have yielded positive results.

As of the end of last year, 87.7 percent of county-level hospitals have capabilities that are on par with secondary hospitals, he said. "The healthcare and management capabilities of county-level hospitals across China have improved."

Li said the commission will continue to ask large hospitals to send medical aid workers and experienced hospital managers to grassroots institutions and channel new medical technologies, especially those targeting common diseases, to less-developed areas.

By 2025, each county with a population of 50,000 or higher should have at least one county-level hospital whose capabilities are on par with secondary hospitals, he said.