More patients in the towns and counties of Shanxi have received treatment in local hospitals as the province reforms its healthcare system.
Shanxi has been committed to improving medical services in villages, towns and counties in recent years. Fifty-five medical associations covering city-level and all county-level comprehensive hospitals have been established, and healthcare institutions in various communities and townships are joining in.
Meanwhile, Shanxi has promoted the services of general practitioners, attracting 9.66 million residents to sign the service agreement allowing them to receive treatment in their local communities or at home.
As a result, the number of people seeking treatment at community and county-level hospitals increased in 2015, accounting for 59.9 percent of the total in the province.
Apart from strengthening the provision of medical services from the bottom up, Shanxi has provided financial support for local residents to receive treatment by adjusting the prices of medicine and medical services, as well as offering social insurance.
Hospitals at county and district levels across the province have also cut down drug prices by around 15 percent.
The number of people in Shanxi with the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, a kind of county-based social insurance, reached 99.2 percent. In 2015, the government of Shanxi has provided subsidies worth 250 million yuan ($36.98 million) to 21,000 patients who have serious diseases through the insurance scheme.
"I'm at ease now for the insurance offsets 75 percent of the expenses for my treatment and medical experts from Taiyuan are treating the severely injured tendon and blood vessels in my left leg," said Guo Siwa, a farmer who received help at a hospital in his hometown in Yonghe county.
The reforms to the healthcare system in Shanxi are still ongoing. Many more public hospitals in the major cities of the province, including Taiyuan and Jinzhong, will further the improvement of medical service in the coming years.
