China Daily:

In China, there are not only big cities with abundant medical resources but also remote and mountainous areas. How do you guide and support the flow of medical resources to grassroots and remote areas so as to accelerate the regional balance and homogenization of medical services? Thank you.

Lei Haichao:

Thanks for your question. I will take this one. Shortage and uneven distribution of high-quality medical resources are common problems faced by all countries. The Chinese government has paid high attention to these issues. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have implemented a series of effective measures that are mainly focused on the following three aspects.

First, we have increased the scale and volume of high-quality medical resources. In recent years, we have expanded their volume in terms of national medical centers, regional medical centers, and medical centers. We have set up 13 national medical centers specializing in different fields of medicine, 125 national-level regional medical centers and 114 provincial-level regional medical centers in the country. As these medical centers are put into use, China's medical resources and service capacity have achieved leapfrog development and become more balanced among eastern, central and western regions.

Second, we have reallocated more high-quality medical resources to grassroots areas. We have made a forward-looking layout for national medical resources so as to better support grassroots hospitals and improve their technological services and management through joint efforts. In the past 20 years, pairing-off assistance has been carried out between tertiary hospitals and county-level hospitals, and thousands of doctors have been encouraged to participate in rural health projects. By doing so, high-quality medical resources have been gradually brought to rural residents. We have sent teams of medical personnel to provide assistance to seriously impoverished counties, significantly improving the local medical service capacity. We have also organized nationwide medical-aid tours. On Sept. 11, all 44 hospitals managed by the NHC began this year's medical-aid tours, marking the first full participation of hospitals managed by the commission. In addition, we have required national medical centers and national-level regional medical centers to make medical-aid tours in the future. In recent years, we have also been inclined to establish national key clinical specialties in cities that are not provincial capitals. According to statistics, 40% of newly-built projects with key clinical specialties in the country have been located in non-provincial-capital cities, which also showcases our favorable policies for more balanced medical services.

Third, we have leveraged information technology to support our work. With 5G technology and other advanced information networks, medical services can be delivered across areas. For example, we have beefed up our efforts to establish internet hospitals. At present, 3,340 such hospitals across the country can provide more than 100 million online diagnoses and treatments each year, effectively complementing current medical services. We have also put emphasis on private hospitals, guiding their development in accordance with the requirements proposed by the 20th CPC National Congress and the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. We aim to regulate the medical services of private hospitals so that they will become an effective supplement to public hospitals.

Looking forward, we will focus on institutional and mechanism reform and propel more diverse and tiered medical services in line with the decisions and deployments made by the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. Journalists might have learned a few days ago that China plans to allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in nine cities and regions. By doing so, the business environment in these nine pilot areas will be improved and local residents will have more options for medical treatment. Thanks to these combined measures, the diversified and multiple medical service needs of residents can be well met and satisfied. Thank you.

Xing Huina:

That's all for today's briefing. Thanks to all the speakers and journalists. Goodbye, everyone.

Translated and edited by Zhang Rui, Wang Wei, Guo Yiming, Zhou Jing, Liu Sitong, Wang Qian, Xu Kailin, Li Huiru, Yan Xiaoqing, Ma Yujia, Wang Ziteng, Huang Shan, Lin Liyao, Rochelle Beiersdorfer, and Jay Birbeck. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.