Professor Li Ling, deputy director of the China Centre for Economic Research
of Peking University, said that China could take lessons from the system it put
in place in rural areas before the 1970s.
In this "barefoot doctor"
system, farmers were given three months to one year's training before becoming
community practitioners who administered traditional Chinese
medicine.
This system, along with the work unit system in which the
workplace provided very inexpensive healthcare for its employees, produced a
"miracle" in which life expectancy in China rose from age 35 in 1949 to age 68
in 1979. During this time, China used only 1 per cent of the world's health
resources to dramatically improve healthcare for one quarter of the world's
population. However, since the 1980s, life expectancy has only risen by 3.5
years, Li Ling said.
Li Ling pointed out that while many argue that it is
difficult to extend life expectancy after it reaches a certain point, many other
countries have done so. In the 1980s, Australia increased life expectancy from
74 to 89, while Malaysia increased life expectancy from 67 to 72.
"During
the fast growth period, our health system is not growing as quickly as our
economy," Li Ling said.
Robeta Lipson, chairwoman of Beijing United
Family Hospitals and Clinic and president of Chindex International Inc, said
that she agrees with Li Ling that lessons from the past could help solve the
problems of today.
Lipson pointed out that China has not promoted allied
health fields such as physician's assistants and nurse practitioners.
She
said that these essential service providers could be analogous to the "barefoot
doctors," who provided TCM services in rural areas in China before the 1970s,
but they could also provide Western medicine.
While healthcare in urban
areas is usually somewhat better than in rural areas, affordability and access
are major problems Chinese face nationwide.
Chen Chih, vice-president of
General Electric and president and CEO of GE Healthcare Greater China, said that
out of the 10 million questions posted on www.baidu.com, most of the questions
relate to health.
"It's too difficult for people to access healthcare
information," Chen said. "It's too difficult to go see doctors. It takes too
much time and too much money, so they ask their questions and seek answers
online."
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)