Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday called for deepening medical reform, strengthening the guarantee for serious diseases and stopping hospitals from relying on drug sales.

The medical reform, initiated in 2009, is significant as it "has an overall impact and concerns immediate public interests," Li, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said at a meeting.

"Priority should be shifted to the improvement of medical treatment and service quality," he said.

Li said the drug markup policy should be eliminated, and the charging dispensing fees for doctors' diagnosis, to be covered by the healthcare insurance, should be established, so as to reduce patients' burden and increase payment for medical staff, who would be mobilized to offer quality service and dispense prescriptions more reasonably.

China's medical sector has been harshly criticized for its random prescriptions, high prices and inadequate medical resources, as doctors are wrongly encouraged by the current system to prescribe expensive or improper drugs to patients, from which hospitals usually seek profits.

Deepening the medical reform will improve people's livelihoods and health, boost consumption and promote the development of related industries, which is conducive to economic growth, adjustment of economic structure and transformation of the growth mode, Li said.

Currently, the reform has entered a "crucial stage," with difficult issues constantly emerging, he said.

Efforts should be made to strengthen the national healthcare network, improve the essential drug system and promote the reform of public hospitals, said the vice premier.

"The guarantee for serious diseases is an essential criteria gauging a country's healthcare level," he said, adding that the system guaranteeing major diseases has not been established in China, although the national medicare network has covered both rural and urban areas.

"People still bear a relatively heavy burden in covering their medical fees for serious diseases," Li said, adding that the whole family tend to be reduced to poverty due to the illness of one family member.

The national medicare network should cover the insurance for serious diseases "as soon as possible," so as to "strengthen the social safety net" and effectively solve the special difficulties of those critically ill patients.

Basic medical insurance should be combined with commercial insurance so as to "optimize the effect of the basic medicare and strengthen mutual assistance in society," Li said.

Meanwhile, the vice premier said the government should increase its input in medicare in order to support the treatment of major diseases.  

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