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Health care reform could be prescription for employment
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-09 16:10

SMALL HOSPITALS STRUGGLE

While graduates scramble for jobs at big urban hospitals, many of the smaller urban hospitals and rural clinics can't find enough staff.

"Most graduates are not willing to work in small and rural hospitals because they are afraid there is little chance to improve their medical skills and be promoted," said Nie Ruqiong, a doctor with the No. 2 Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yet-sen University.

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A report submitted by the Harvard University School of Public Health to the World Health Organization said China's health care development was restricted by the limitation of health care resources and uneven development between urban and rural areas, and among different regions.

Liu Xinmin, an official with the Ministry of Health, admitted that the distribution of hospital resources was extremely unbalanced, with about 80 percent of hospitals in cities.

Even village or township clinics are available, many rural patients opt for big hospitals in the city just because they do not trust local medics, he said.

So, while hotels in large cities are often full of hopeful patients, small hospitals and rural clinics must make do with patients who usually can hardly make ends meet.

"I cannot afford the medical bills, so I will not see a doctor until I have to be hospitalized," said Wang Jiangao, a farmer in Wangmo County of Guizhou Province, one of the poorest provinces in western China.

Wang lives with his daughter. "The money I earn from my corn fields can hardly support my family," he said.

Although he has joined the country's new rural cooperative medical care system, he can only be reimbursed for part of any hospitalization expenses.

SOLUTIONS IN NEW PLANS

The State Council, or the Cabinet, announced on Tuesday a three-year action plan on health care reform.

Over the next three years, the country will train 1.37 million village doctors and 160,000 community doctors. Also, city-level hospitals, which usually have better expertise and equipment, will each be required to help three county-level hospitals to improve the skills of medics.

Doctors at city hospitals and disease control agencies will be asked to serve in rural hospitals for at least one year before they can be promoted.

To improve primary health care facilities, China will give priority to building about 2,000 county-level hospitals. And each county would have at least one hospital that was essentially in compliance with national standards.