Northwest China's Gansu Province saved approximately 10 million
yuan (some US$1.23 million) in medical expenses for needy rural
residents in 2005, according to the provincial government.
Gansu Province sent 1,256 urban medical workers to improve
medical care in its small towns and rural villages in past year,
said the director of the province's office of "A Thousand Doctors
Assist Rural Medical Care" project.
The project was launched by the Chinese Ministry of Health and
the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in April
last year to help improve medical care in rural China.
By the end of 2005, noted the director, the dispatched doctors
have done more than 7,400 surgeries for rural patients, cutting the
operation fee by some 1,000 yuan (about US$123) per case.
In the meantime, these doctors participated in the publicity of
knowledge of hygiene and organized personnel training in local
hospitals.
According to statistics, the children's bacterin vaccination
rate grew by five to eight percent over the previous year while the
rate of hospital delivery rose by eight percent. And 120,000
medical workers in the grassroots hospitals have undergone training
thanks to the project.
China has a rural population of about 900 million, nearly 80
percent of whom lack medical care. To help farmers afford major
diseases, the country has again launched a cooperative medical care
system and set up mobile medical teams in rural areas.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2006)