A China Health Initiative for the World

Jun 12-2020   

Based on its advantages in institutions and information technology, China is fully capable of building a world-class universal healthcare system and can thus offer a China initiative for the world, says Prof. Li Ling of the NSD in a recent interview with the People Daily Overseas Edition.

Prof. Li heads the Health Development Research Center at Peking University. Regarding China’s successful containment of the pandemic, she says that four ‘core codes’ should be given credit, namely the senior leadership, the all-for-all institutions, the comprehensive public healthcare system, and the extensive application of information technology.

Despite its overall effectiveness, the public healthcare agencies still have room to improve, notably their incapability to attract and retain talents due to relatively low salaries compared with those of market-oriented hospitals. In the next-round reform, a balancing act should be made between public health agencies and hospitals by converging their goals, tasks, and information, says Prof. Li.

Some regions in China have made good efforts in these regards. Before the launch of the national initiative Health China, the western province of Gansu had already begun to try new ways to safeguard people’s health at a lower cost, with the concerted involvement of various healthcare and disease prevention agencies.

As of the public healthcare reform, Prof. Li suggests that an all-encompassing information system should be erected to integrate all of the information relating to everyone’s health, disease, and treatment. Moreover, due to the fact that public healthcare is an integral part of national governance, it’s of strategic importance to build a health governance system centered around people’s health.