Fosun champions cause of rural doctors to bolster medical services

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd recently sent 24 of its staff to poverty-stricken counties on a 10-year plan to improve the lot of rural doctors, so that they could in turn offer better medical services to the people.

Each of the employees will be stationed in one of the 24 counties in 12 provincial-level regions, including Yunnan, Xinjiang, Guizhou and Hainan, for a year.

They will be responsible for communicating with rural doctors in local villages, learning about their difficulties and needs, introducing the Fosun plan to them, and coordinating with local governments, said Chen Qiyu, co-president of Fosun International.

He was speaking at a ceremony to see off the employees on April 4.

Official data showed that China has roughly 1.5 million rural doctors responsible for the health of 650 million rural residents. But in many rural areas, the doctors are old, from the traditional system, which is not the same as being professionally qualified, and have a meager income, Chen said.

"These doctors safeguard rural residents' health and we want to safeguard them," said Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International.

"Through the plan, we want to attract, cultivate and retain a stable team of qualified rural doctors, help improve their working conditions and try to relieve them of worries about economic situations so that residents will get better health service and the cases of poverty caused by illness in impoverished areas will be reduced," he said.

The rural doctors will be provided with training online and offline and offered to partner with doctors from famous hospitals in or out of the province, to empower them with stronger professional skills, according to Fosun.

The group will also buy them health and accident insurance to help relieve their economic worries, offer them more medical devices and medicines to help them deal with complicated cases, and institute awards for outstanding rural doctors so as to accord them public recognition.

Altogether, 100 counties will be covered by the plan in three years and it will eventually be expanded nationwide, Fosun said.

Yang Lianying of Pingbian county, Yunnan province, who has been working as a rural doctor for a decade, said she earns nearly 2,000 yuan ($318) a month and lives a frugal life.

"As a deputy to the National People's Congress, I submitted a motion during the annual NPC session last month that hopefully a top-down design will be mulled by the country to solve economic problems of rural doctors so that they will be more confident to provide for their twilight years," Yang said.

"More importantly, we don't have necessary medical equipment. I don't have an oxygen maker in my clinic and many others don't even have a disinfector."

Guo Kangle, who will stay in Lijiang city's Yongsheng county in Yunnan for a year, said he and his fellows will try to put the Fosun plan into practice and help the rural doctors solve their difficulties.

zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn