Looking at the ＂Strong Grassroots＂ of Medical and Health Services from a Set of Figures

On June 5th, the medical staff of Nanhe District People’s Hospital in Xingtai City, Hebei Province went deep into the countryside to carry out free clinic activities at the grassroots level, and examined the eyes of the villagers in Sushi Zhang Cun, Jiasong Town. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Zhang Chi)

　　90% families can reach the nearest medical point within 15 minutes, and basically all cities and counties (cities, districts) will carry out family doctor contract service … … The National Health and Wellness Commission held a press conference on July 14th to introduce the progress and effectiveness of primary health care services since the 18th CPC National Congress. A set of numbers reflects the changes in these 10 years.

　　There are over 4.4 million primary medical and health personnel.

　　By the end of 2021, there were nearly 980,000 grass-roots medical and health institutions in China, with more than 4.4 million health workers, achieving full coverage of streets, communities, towns and villages. The sixth statistical survey of health services shows that 90% of families can reach the nearest medical point within 15 minutes.

　　In 2012, there were more than 910,000 primary medical and health institutions and about 3.4 million health workers.

　　In addition, in the past 10 years, the number of beds in primary medical and health institutions has increased from more than 1.32 million to more than 1.71 million, and the number of medical practitioners and assistant medical practitioners in primary medical and health personnel has increased from 1.009 million to 1.615 million.

　　In Xishui County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", the county has increased the establishment of 1,200 health technicians, and 200 undergraduate and above personnel are openly recruited every year to enrich the county and township medical institutions. Ran Chongqing, the county magistrate of Xishui County, said that up to now, a total of 1.8 billion yuan has been invested in the standardization construction of tertiary medical institutions in counties and villages, and the service capacity at the grassroots level has been greatly improved, and the rate of medical treatment in the county has reached 92.6%.

　　"The network of primary medical and health institutions has been continuously improved, the capacity of primary medical and health services has been continuously enhanced, and the new operating mechanism of primary medical and health institutions has been improved." Nie Chunlei, director of the grassroots department of the National Health and Wellness Commission, said.

　　The proportion of primary diagnosis and treatment has remained above 50% for a long time.

　　"Strengthening the grassroots" is an important principle and work content for deepening the reform of medical and health system. According to reports, the current proportion of primary medical treatment has remained above 50% for a long time.

　　Nie Chunlei introduced that in order to continuously improve the capacity of primary health care services, the National Health and Wellness Commission has successively carried out activities such as "creating a demonstration community health service center", "township hospitals satisfied by the masses" and "providing quality services at the grass-roots level", introduced the capacity standards of health centers and community health service centers, improved the basic infrastructure conditions, and upgraded facilities and equipment. At present, all eligible grass-roots institutions are included in the new rural cooperative medical system, urban and rural residents’ medical insurance and urban workers’ medical insurance.

　　In view of the phenomenon that the proportion of outpatients in primary medical and health service institutions has declined in recent years, Nie Chunlei said that the actual number of outpatients is still rising, and the measurement of primary medical and health institutions depends on comprehensive service capabilities, including normalized epidemic prevention and control and other public health service capabilities.

　　Set up 320,000 village (neighborhood) public health committees.

　　It is reported that at present, 320,000 village (neighborhood) public health committees have been set up in China to lay a solid foundation for community prevention and control of the epidemic in COVID-19.

　　The epidemic situation is a "big test". Since the outbreak, China’s basic medical and health institutions have played the role of "sentinel" and "probe" on the basis of completing basic medical services, and undertaken a large number of epidemic prevention and control work such as screening, transshipment, epidemic adjustment, nucleic acid sampling and vaccination.

　　This is also a microcosm of the improvement of grassroots public health service capacity. "Every year, hundreds of millions of hypertensive patients and more than 35 million diabetic patients need their follow-up, more than 10 million pregnant women and newborns need their visits, tens of millions of children need their vaccination services, and more than 100 million elderly people aged 65 and over need health checkups … …” Nie Chunlei said that the service capacity of primary health care institutions is steadily improving.

　　Set up more than 420,000 family doctors.

　　By the end of 2021, all cities and counties (cities, districts) in China have basically implemented family doctor contract services and established more than 420,000 family doctor teams.

　　"After signing the family doctor service, residents can get basic medical care, preventive health care and health guidance." Zhang Yalan, director of the South Mill Community Health Service Center in Chaoyang District, Beijing, introduced.

　　Taking Chaoyang District as an example, the "1+6+N" characteristic family doctor contract service model is implemented: 1. Basic service package, suitable for the general population, which mainly includes basic medical care, public health and general health management; 6 is a personalized service package, which is mainly aimed at key groups, such as follow-up of patients with chronic diseases, health care for women and children, physical examination for the elderly, etc. N is a customized service package, which is aimed at special people recognized by civil affairs, disabled persons’ federations and other departments and can enjoy on-site service.

　　"However, family doctors are not home doctors or private doctors." Zhang Yalan said that the contract service of family doctors is actually a change in service mode, and it advocates a long-term and stable contract service relationship, which can provide medical and health services including long-term prescriptions for key people such as contracted residents, especially chronic patients and the elderly.