Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    RECENTLY, a video of a young woman angrily ranting at hospital ticket scalpers stirred up the growing discontent in China over how difficult it is to access medical services.

    The young woman traveled from far away to a hospital in Beijing, hoping to make an appointment with a specialist to treat her sick mother. Though she arrived at the hospital one day earlier and waited all day in a long line for a registration ticket, she failed to secure one.

    Some hospital ticket scalpers had, in collusion with the hospital security guards, snapped up most of the tickets and resold them for a windfall profit.

    The girl’s misfortune won the sympathy of millions of people since many of them have experienced similar plights before. But most people are aware that the girl’s sad story is only the latest episode in China’s long-standing problem of a shortage of medical resources.

    Some factors have further aggravated the problem: urban expansion outpacing the construction of health care infrastructure; the uneven distribution of medical resources, with most specialists and the best facilities concentrated in major cities; and the continuous drain on health workers, especially nurses, as a result of overwork, low wages, and job stress. The worst problem medical workers face is harassment from “medical dispute profiteers.”

    Numerous experts have put many proposals forward, but few improvements have been made. The crux of the problem is the application of the wrong medicine for the illnesses.

    Rather than merely investing heavily to increase medical resources to satisfy the huge demands in big cities, China should adopt new strategies to tackle the challenge. I summarize the new strategies as two “shiftings,” namely, shifting China’s health care system from treatment-based to prevention-based and shifting the over-concentration of medical resources from major hospitals in big cities to various levels of medical institutions.

    If more minor illnesses could be found, treated and cured before they developed into major ones at grass-roots clinics, many trips to big hospitals could be spared, not to mention how much money could be saved.

    Such a shift would require more political will than financial power. The best proof is Cuba. The World Health Organization calls the nation’s health care system an example for all countries of the world because of its excellence and efficiency.

    Despite extremely limited resources and the dramatic impact of the economic sanctions imposed by the United States for more than half a century, Cuba has managed to guarantee access to care for all segments of the population and obtain results similar to those of the most developed nations.

    Cuba’s health care system is based on preventive medicine and the results achieved are outstanding. In May 2014, in recognition of the excellence of its health care system, Cuba chaired the 67th World Health Assembly.

    Cuba guarantees its citizen’s constitutional right to health protection and care by providing free medical and hospital care through a rural medical service network, polyclinics, hospitals, preventative and specialized treatment centers; by providing free dental care; by promoting public health campaigns, health education, regular medical examinations, general vaccinations; and other measures to prevent the outbreak of disease.

    As a result, its infant mortality rate is among the lowest in the world and its life expectancy of 78 years is longer than that of most developed countries.

    If a poor nation like Cuba can provide such excellent health care for its citizens, so can China. Priority should be given to the establishment of a national health care network covering every urban and rural community and the national health care system should focus on prevention.

    With the aid of the Internet, Big Data and Cloud Computing, it could be possible for millions of patients to consult a doctor, have their conditions diagnosed, and receive a prescription all online, thus preventing millions of trips to the hospital. The rapidly developing virtual reality technology could also one day make online consultation with a doctor more easily.

    In addition, more private investment should be encouraged in the construction of medical infrastructure.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)