Wang Dongsheng, the director-general of the Social Development Division of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, disclosed at a recent forum that nine kinds of public health services will be available to Chinese residents free of charge.
The nine services are said to be resident health archives, health education, immunity programs, infectious disease control, children's healthcare, pregnant women's healthcare, senior citizen's healthcare, chronic disease management, and major mental diseases management.
Among the nine services, the building of health archives will be initiated nationwide in 2009. It is expected that by the end of the year, about 30% of city residents and 5% of rural residents will have their medical records archived.
The development of chronic diseases has caused huge medical expense. According to Wang, the cost of high blood pressure, cerebrovascular disease, malignant tumors, and heart disease has reached more than CNY120 billion, accounting for 21% of the total medical expenditure. Therefore the prevention and early intervention of chronic disease is also an important part of the public health service.
In addition, from this year on, China will organize and implement a series of major public health programs such as popularizing hospital delivery among pregnant women in rural areas, offering Hepatitis B vaccine for people above 15 years old, supplementing folic acid to married women in rural areas, and offering free surgery to poor cataract patients.
Wang stated that the expenditure of all professional public health departments, including the cost of personnel and of development and construction will be included into the government's budget.
