China’s National Health Commission (NHC), in collaboration with the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, and 10 other ministries, has unveiled the ‘Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Healthy Villages.’ The initiative sets an ambitious vision to substantially enhance the quality and accessibility of rural healthcare services by 2030, ensuring that residents have convenient access to high-standard medical care and can afford their healthcare needs. The plan also aims to popularize healthy lifestyles, control major disease risks, and continuously elevate the health status of rural populations. By 2035, the goal is to establish fully developed healthy rural communities, significantly reduce disparities in public health service levels between urban and rural areas, and narrow the gap in health development and standards.
The strategic plan encompasses several key tasks:
- Rural Medical Service Enhancement: This involves optimizing the structure and functionality of rural healthcare facilities, bolstering the talent pool within the rural healthcare sector, and refining the operational mechanisms to improve efficiency and service quality.
- Strengthening Rural Public Health Services: The plan calls for intensified efforts in disease prevention and control, particularly for infectious and endemic diseases prevalent in rural regions, and the establishment of a robust, integrated disease control network that spans urban and rural areas.
- TCM Services Expansion: The document emphasizes the importance of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), aiming to establish TCM clinics in all township health centers and ensure that over 80% of village clinics offer TCM services. It also promotes the ‘two specialties and one center’ project for county-level TCM hospitals.
- Health Improvement for Rural Residents: Focusing on providing comprehensive health services for vulnerable groups such as children, women, and the elderly, and advocating for healthy living practices to prevent poverty due to illness.
- Rural Health Environment and Industry Development: The document encourages the integration of health with other sectors like elderly care, tourism, and fitness, and supports the development of rural health industries tailored to local conditions, including rural tourism and herbal medicine cultivation and processing.
These measures are designed to create a robust and sustainable healthcare ecosystem in China’s rural areas, aligning with the country’s broader goals of health equity and economic development. – Flcube.com
