China started its first pilot program under which skillful urban
medical workers will be sent to help develop medical services in
rural areas in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu
Province.??
Vice Provincial Governor Li Ying said at Monday's start-up
ceremony that 1,265 urban medical workers from 10 cities will be
sent, beginning this week, to work at 43 county-level and 350
township hospitals in the province, where they will work for at
least one year.
Urban medical workers will help train rural medical workers in
treating frequently-occurring diseases, common diseases and
diseases hard to be diagnosed and cured, with the purpose of
improving medical treatment levels and beefing up the functioning
of rural hospitals in planned immunity, prevention of disease and
health care.
Li said, the pilot program in Gansu, the first and only one to
be carried out in China this year, is not only of great
significance in developing rural medical services in Gansu, but
also vital in exploring ways for establishing an effective
mechanism for China's medical services in rural areas.
The Gansu program constitutes part of a national program titled
"10,000 physicians support rural health work," which was launched
jointly by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and the
State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Starting this year, the program will be gradually carried out in
600 hospitals in 592 state-listed poverty-stricken counties in
central and western parts of China. The central government will
fund the program.
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2005)