The Beijing News:

We recently read the performance evaluation and monitoring of Grade-III public hospitals issued by the NHC. The data shows that most hospitals have improved, and the gap between regions is narrowing. However, the allocation of resources is still unbalanced and insufficient. What measures has the Chinese government taken to optimize the distribution of medical resources in recent years? Thank you.

Zhu Hongbiao:

Thank you for your question. Promoting the expansion and balanced distribution of high-quality medical resources is a powerful means to solve the problems of insufficient total medical resources and uneven regional distribution. Over the past 10 years, the NHC has further promoted the development of a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, taking multiple measures to promote building a new pattern of orderly medical diagnosis and treatment.

First, we have increased government financial investment and increased the total amount of medical resources. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China allocated 108.96 billion yuan in subsidies to improve capabilities in providing medical services and support. We arranged to invest 72.2 billion yuan in the program to ensure a healthy population and 14.58 billion yuan in the program for public health in terms of disease prevention and control and treatment capacity building in order to strengthen the construction of medical institutions, with a focus on county hospitals. The doctor-visiting rate for common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases in counties exceeded 90%. Compared with 2011, the number of medical institutions nationwide has increased by 8%, the number of beds has increased by 83%, and the number of health personnel has increased by 62%.

Second, we have promoted the expansion and balanced regional distribution of high-quality medical resources. We have started the construction of national medical centers and the country's regional medical centers. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, about 120 provincial-level regional medical centers will be built to improve the diagnosis and treatment level of relevant hospital departments in areas where high-quality medical resources are relatively weak, narrow the gap with the advanced national level, and greatly reduce the number of people seeking medical care across provinces and regions.

Third, we have built a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, with a focus on the development of partnerships between medical institutions. We have successively organized pilot projects with a hierarchical approach to diagnosis and treatment in four municipalities and 317 prefecture-level cities, carried out pilot projects for the development of partnerships between medical institutions in 118 cities in 32 provinces, and begun pilot partnerships between medical institutions in 827 counties. In 2021, the number of flexible inter-hospital patient transfers reached 28.8 million, and the structure of flexible inter-hospital patient transfers has been significantly optimized. Accomplishments have been achieved in building the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, and the rational distribution of medical resources and the synergy of services have been further enhanced. Thank you!