The Department of Maternal and Child Health Care of the National Healthcare Commission (NHC) has released the “Opinions on the Construction of Child-Friendly Hospitals,” setting a target for over 90% of medical institutions to become child-friendly by 2030. The initiative encourages grassroots medical and health institutions, such as township health centers and community health service centers, to actively participate in this construction.
Target Demographics
The children referred to in the document include infants and young children under the age of 3, preschool children aged 3-6, and school-aged children aged 6-17. The measures outlined in the document are designed to enhance the healthcare experience for these age groups.
Key Measures
- Promote a Child-Friendly Medical Space
- The government will guide medical institutions to view hospitals from a child’s perspective, creating convenient, comfortable, and diverse medical spaces. This includes strengthening the child-friendly transformation of outpatient and ward facilities, equipping facilities such as mother and baby rooms, enhancing child safety protection, and providing convenience for children’s medical treatment.
- Enhance Health Service Friendliness
- The government will guide relevant medical institutions to focus on functional positioning, leverage their unique advantages, and innovate service models. Children’s health departments will be established, optimizing service processes according to the entire process of children’s growth, and building a systematic and continuous service model that combines prevention and treatment. The document encourages the improvement of medical experience and guides the enhancement of children’s emergency and first aid capabilities, providing multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment services, expanding the types and quantities of day surgeries, and facilitating the families of affected children. Health management services for children aged 0-6 will be ramped up, and child health management will be included in the family doctor contract. The document also underlines strengthening the management of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) health for children aged 0-36 months and enhancing the construction of TCM pediatrics departments or TCM pediatric health clinics.
- Improve Abilities and Promote a Friendly Working Mechanism
- The government will incorporate the goals and strategies of building child-friendly hospitals into the development plan of medical institutions, guiding medical institutions to prioritize policies and resources for children’s related specialty construction, talent cultivation, and service provision. It will also promote the priority guarantee of children’s healthcare service supply and the trickling down of high-quality medical resources from Class 2 and above comprehensive hospitals, TCM hospitals, children’s hospitals, and maternal and child health care institutions to the grassroots level.
- Strengthen Departmental Collaboration and Social Support
- Relevant departments will include the construction of child-friendly hospitals in their plans and support the construction of the children’s medical and health service system. The government will support each province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) to establish one high-level provincial-level maternal and child health institution, one high-level provincial-level children’s hospital or comprehensive hospital pediatric ward, and support large cities with a permanent population of over one million in urban areas to build one children’s hospital or comprehensive hospital pediatric ward as needed. In the dynamic adjustment of medical service prices, the government will take into account the pricing of pediatric medical services and implement a special pricing policy for children. It will also actively carry out smart medical insurance services for children, promoting the implementation of mobile payment for medical insurance and individual account family mutual payment for employee medical insurance.
Significance of the Initiative
This initiative by the NHC highlights the government’s commitment to improving the quality of healthcare for children, ensuring that medical institutions are not only equipped to treat pediatric patients but also provide a welcoming and supportive environment. By setting a target of over 90% child-friendly hospitals, the government aims to significantly enhance the healthcare experience for children and their families.-Fineline Info & Tech
