Five departments: accelerating the full coverage of county-run Chinese medicine medical institutions

According to the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine website, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Health Commission, the National Health Insurance Bureau, the State Drug Administration recently jointly issued the “opinions on accelerating the high-quality development of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals” (hereinafter referred to as the “opinions”). The Opinions” mentioned that accelerate the county-run Chinese medicine medical institutions to cover all. County-level administrative areas have been set up county-level Chinese medicine hospitals, shall not be in the process of medical consortium and other types of construction, disguised as the abolition, merger of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals, shall not be entrusted to enterprises or other for-profit organizations to manage and operate.

The Opinions require that by 2030, except for small counties, all county-run Chinese medicine hospitals will be basically realized, the development environment of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals will be more optimized, facilities and equipment will be better, staffing will be more reasonable, service management will be more refined, the leading position of leading the development of traditional Chinese medicine in counties will be more prominent, the effectiveness of the construction of the close-knit medical community will be more significant, and the capacity of traditional Chinese medicine services and the ability of comprehensive education and treatment will be greatly improved. It will enhance the capacity of Chinese medicine services and comprehensive education and treatment, better meet the needs of urban and rural residents for Chinese medicine services, and provide Chinese medicine protection for the realization of the principle that “major illnesses should not be treated at the top of the list, general illnesses should be dealt with in cities and counties, and everyday illnesses should be dealt with at the grassroots level”.

The Opinions make it clear that the specific goal is that, by 2030, county-level Chinese medicine hospitals will strive to achieve five “100 per cent”:

The medical service capacity of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals has reached 100%, the medical service capacity of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals has been further upgraded, and all of them have reached the Basic Standard for the Medical Service Capacity of County-level Chinese Medicine Hospitals, and we strive for more than 50% of the medical service capacity of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals to reach the Recommended Standard for the Medical Service Capacity of County-level Chinese Medicine Hospitals.

The standardization rate of infrastructure of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals strives to basically reach 100%.6 The infrastructure of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals is more complete, and strives to basically meet the Construction Standards for Chinese Medicine Hospitals, with outpatient clinics, wards, functional rooms, and ancillary rooms meeting the needs of hospital operation.

The ratio of physicians of Chinese medicine category in county-level Chinese medicine hospitals has reached 100% of the total number of physicians. The structure of physicians in county-level Chinese medicine hospitals has become more reasonable. The proportion of physicians in the Chinese medicine category in the total number of physicians in Chinese medicine hospitals has reached more than 60%, and the proportion of physicians in the Chinese medicine category in hospitals combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine has reached more than 30% of the total number of physicians.

County-level Chinese medicine hospitals strive to reach the standard of Grade 2A, 100%, has been built in the county-level Chinese medicine hospitals, the county-level Chinese medicine hospitals are more clearly positioned, more functional, all to achieve the level of Grade 2A or above Chinese medicine hospitals.

The application level of electronic medical record system in county-level Chinese medicine hospitals strives to reach 100%. The level of informatization construction of county-level Chinese medicine hospitals has been gradually improved, with the application level of electronic medical record system of all second-level hospitals reaching level 3 or above, and the application level of electronic medical record system of all third-level hospitals reaching level 4 or above.