China pilots public hospital reform in 16 cities \\Six-Party talks gain traction

来源：百度文库 编辑：神马文学网 时间：2024/04/17 04:52:12

China pilots public hospital reform in 16 cities

08:15, February 24, 2010      

Email | Print | Subscribe | Comments | Forum 

Increases the bookmark twitter facebook digg Google Windowslive Delicious buzz friendfeed Linkedin diigo reddit stumbleupon

China has chosen 16 cities to pilot reform of government-run hospitals in an effort to ease public complaint of rising medical bills, according to an official circular released on Tuesday.

The cities are required to establish a reasonable, effective and optimized medical service system, and to fully motivate all medical workers to provide the public with safe, effective, convenient and affordable medical services, according to the document.

Public hospitals must retain its goal of serving the public interests and their top priority should be protecting people's health, said the document, jointly issued by five ministries including the Ministry of Health.

The cities, including six in central China, six in the east and four in the west, were asked to start the reform from this year.

China in April 2009 unveiled a blueprint for health-care over the next decade, kicking off a much-anticipated reform to fix its ailing medical system. The core principle of the reform is to provide basic health care as a "public service" to the people.

Health Minister Chen Zhu said serving the public interests should be underscored in the health care reform and the public hospitals should play a leading role in it.

MOH statistics show that China had about 14,000 public hospitals nationwide by November 2009.

Li Ling, prof. with the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University, said the reform meant public hospitals would return to its nature of serving the public rather than making money.

"This is key to solving the complaints of costly medical service," Li said.

Public hospitals in China enjoyed full government funding before 1985. Since then the situation changed as public hospitals embarked on a market-oriented reform as economic reform and opening up policy adopted in late 1978 deepened in the country.

"Public hospitals were allowed to make profits to invigorate themselves since then," said Xie Pengyan, professor of Peking University First Hospital. "Our hospital grew fast and my income increased remarkably since that year."

Analysts said the market-oriented reform had greatly improved medical service to some extent. But the fact that hospitals operated using profits from medical services and drug prescriptions also resulted in soaring medical costs.

According to the circular, public hospitals will not be allowed to make profit from drug prescriptions. They should operate on government funding and charges from medical services.

The document also said that efforts should be made to strengthen hospitals in rural areas. Public hospitals are required to train medical workers for grassroot medical institutions.

Source: Xinhua 

Six-Party talks gain traction

08:25, February 24, 2010      

Email | Print | Subscribe | Comments | Forum 

Increases the bookmark twitter facebook digg Google Windowslive Delicious buzz friendfeed Linkedin diigo reddit stumbleupon

Nuclear envoys from US, ROK arrive today after visit by Pyongyang official

Top nuclear envoys from Washington and Seoul arrive in Beijing today to seek details of recent meetings between Beijing and Pyongyang and to discuss how to bring the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) back to the negotiating table.

Kim Yong-il, director of the International Affairs Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, conveyed greetings from top DPRK leader Kim Jong-il to President Hu Jintao when they met at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday.

In talks earlier yesterday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the two touched upon denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Foreign Ministry said. No details, however, were released.

Wang was in the DPRK from Feb 6 to 9, and in the closely-watched trip, met Kim Jong-il. A day later, DPRK Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan, also the country's top nuclear negotiator, visited China.

"(Through the recent visits) China has earned considerable concessions on preconditions by the DPRK for restarting the Six-Party Talks," Seoul's Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday.

Also yesterday, the top nuclear envoys from Washington and Seoul set off for Beijing to discuss with their Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei ways to bring Pyongyang back on track for talks.

"The series of meetings are not a coincidence," said Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asian studies at Beijing-based Tsinghua University.

"As the Chinese authorities return to work after the Spring Festival holidays, the DPRK, the US and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are strengthening efforts for the resumption of Six-Party Talks," he said.

Pyongyang has come under increasing pressure to take a more conciliatory path and return to the six-nation talks, which also involve Japan and Russia.

"In a couple of cases, there have been meetings recently with North Korean officials, and we're going to be consulting to see where we think we stand in the process," Philip J. Crowley, spokesman for the US Department of State, said yesterday.

"We are looking for a signal from North Korea, and we're still waiting for that signal," he said.

ROK Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said yesterday that his country was closely monitoring the meetings between Chinese and DPRK officials.

"It is too soon to tell whether the recent meetings, and their seemingly positive ramifications, will lead to the immediate resumption of Six-Party Talks, but we are keenly monitoring the results of the meetings to focus all our diplomatic efforts in resuming negotiations."

However, Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean affairs at the Central Party School, said it is too early to expect breakthroughs.

Pyongyang has set three preconditions for resuming talks: A peace treaty with the US, lifting of UN sanctions, and more economic aid, Zhang said. "But the US is unlikely to accede to any of them."

Zhang said a priority of the US envoy's China trip is to lobby Beijing to persuade Pyongyang to return to talks before discussing its demands.

"It's hard to say how much consensus can be reached between the two. China has not yet clearly expressed its position on whether to accept the DPRK's conditions before the Six-Party Talks".

He also said Kim Yong-il is likely to have discussed about more Chinese aid, as the DPRK economy is reeling under UN sanctions and the recent currency reform.

"It's an urgent issue for DPRK and a realistic problem for China, too."

A senior UN official who visited Pyongyang on Monday strongly defended international food aid to the DPRK.

"These are human beings that need the food. It's not the political system. This should not be argued in a political way," UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, who earlier this month was the first top-level UN official to visit the country in six years, told CNN.

The Six-Party Talks were launched in 2003 but have not made any progress since April 2009 when the DPRK pulled out of the talks to protest the UN condemnation of its missile tests.

The US State Department has, for now, ruled out the possibility of US officials going to Pyongyang or meeting DPRK officials in China.

Source: China Daily
China pilots public hospital reform in 16 cities \\Six-Party talks gain traction China not to let yuan gain in short term: experts Chinese President Hu urges reform, innovation in Party building Chinese President Hu urges reform, innovation in Party building ll China applauded for determination in climate talks Great progress made in China's rural medical reform: minister China's first public diplomacy research center established in Beijing China may ban smoking in urban public transport Party official highlights CPC members' role in non-public economic sector your image in public Building high-quality leadership in grassroots party organizations //China's cabinet urges thorough 探望外婆/Visiting Grandma in the Hospital Transparency in Party affairs HK calls on public's views on healthcare reform China's Cabinet approves education reform plan Public elected 100 secretaries of village party organizations take office Six arrested in melamine-tainted milk scandal China seeks talks to ease Korean tensions Israeli PM: no guaranteed success in talks Indian company in talks about MGM bid Multi-party general election begins in Myanmar public Hotmail Blocked in China China in My Eyes