Professor Li Ling, deputy director of the China Centre for Economic Research of Peking University, said that China could take lessons from the system it put in place in rural areas before the 1970s.

In this "barefoot doctor" system, farmers were given three months to one year's training before becoming community practitioners who administered traditional Chinese medicine.

This system, along with the work unit system in which the workplace provided very inexpensive healthcare for its employees, produced a "miracle" in which life expectancy in China rose from age 35 in 1949 to age 68 in 1979. During this time, China used only 1 per cent of the world's health resources to dramatically improve healthcare for one quarter of the world's population. However, since the 1980s, life expectancy has only risen by 3.5 years, Li Ling said.

Li Ling pointed out that while many argue that it is difficult to extend life expectancy after it reaches a certain point, many other countries have done so. In the 1980s, Australia increased life expectancy from 74 to 89, while Malaysia increased life expectancy from 67 to 72.

"During the fast growth period, our health system is not growing as quickly as our economy," Li Ling said.

Robeta Lipson, chairwoman of Beijing United Family Hospitals and Clinic and president of Chindex International Inc, said that she agrees with Li Ling that lessons from the past could help solve the problems of today.

Lipson pointed out that China has not promoted allied health fields such as physician's assistants and nurse practitioners.

She said that these essential service providers could be analogous to the "barefoot doctors," who provided TCM services in rural areas in China before the 1970s, but they could also provide Western medicine.

While healthcare in urban areas is usually somewhat better than in rural areas, affordability and access are major problems Chinese face nationwide.

Chen Chih, vice-president of General Electric and president and CEO of GE Healthcare Greater China, said that out of the 10 million questions posted on www.baidu.com, most of the questions relate to health.

"It's too difficult for people to access healthcare information," Chen said. "It's too difficult to go see doctors. It takes too much time and too much money, so they ask their questions and seek answers online."

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