China continues to enhance public medical services

BEIJING -- China's tertiary public hospitals nationwide have further enhanced accessibility of their medical services, according to an official assessment report.

The report, released on Wednesday by the National Health Commission and six other departments, was formulated based on the performance of the country's 2,817 tertiary public hospitals in 2022.

The document highlighted an improvement in the capability of these hospitals to address complex and difficult diseases.

It also noted that there's been an increase in the number of physicians across various departments, including anesthesia, pediatrics and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

China has a three-tier system to grade hospitals, with tertiary hospitals -- which have the largest number of beds and provide comprehensive medical services -- at the top of the system.

The hospitals covered in the assessment consisted of 2,112 Western medicine-based hospitals and 705 TCM hospitals.