Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday pledged to spend at least 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) in improving township health service in the next five years.

To give the people an easier and cheaper access to medical service, China needs to step up building rural health service system and improve the service networks covering county, township and village levels, said Wen while delivering a government work report at the opening meeting of the Fourth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature.

China has more than 900 million rural population. Rural health is the weakest and most unbalanced part in the country's health development, Health Minister Gao Qiang said late last month.

"The move shows the strong commitment and resolution of the central government in improving the lagging-behind rural health service system in the approach to build socialist new countryside, "said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, in an interview with Xinhua.

Township health centers are a connecting link between county hospitals and village clinics in the overall rural health service system, said Mao.

The central government has been raising financial support to this part over the past few years.

In 2004, 3.7 billion yuan was allocated by the central government as subsidy to local health development, among with 88 percent was spent on rural people's health. Last year, 3.8 billion yuan from central finance and 3.052 bullion yuan from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Health were given to rural health organs, including 2.3 billion yuan spent on township health centers.

According to premier's report, from 2006 to 2010, the central government will spend more than 20 billion yuan in renovating houses and upgrading equipment in township health centers and some of county hospitals.

Along with rising fund from the central finance, local governments have been increasing support to township health centers. In Central China's Hunan Province, provincial fund for building township health centers rose from 4 million yuan in 2002 to 35 million yuan in 2005.

In East China's Shandong Province, a total of 25 million yuan was spent on 30 township health centers in underdeveloped counties last year.

To date, every township health center in Henan Province has become the first choice of farmers in seeking medical service. They do not have to go to hospitals above the county level if they have no serious diseases, said Zhang Zhimin, head of the grassroots health and women and children care division under the Henan Provincial Health Department.

In Henan, renovation of all township health centers will complete by this year. The support priorities in the next five years will be given to county hospitals and village clinics so as to improve the overall rural medical service system, and train more grassroots health workers, Zhang told Xinhua.

Premier's government report also proposed that in next five years, urban doctors will take turns to work in the countryside to help training medical staffs and treat rural patients.

Actually, China has begun sending urban doctors to countryside since the early of 2005, said Mao, giving the name of the project as "10,000 doctors to support rural health".

So far, the project has dispatched about 4,000 urban qualified doctors to 600 underdeveloped counties, he said.

Bao Weisu, head of Longyang Township Health Center, Tongwei County of Northwest China's Gansu Province, said, "With the support by colleagues from cities, our treatment skills have improved a lot and farmers have enjoyed good, cheap and convenient service."

"We really hope they can stay for another two years so that the farmers' difficulty in getting good and cheap service can be overcome," Bao told Xinhua.

According to Mao, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance have announced that this year, the central finance will allocate 69 million yuan in supporting provincial-level medical service institutes to assist township health centers. The targeted counties will be expanded to 375 in 11 provinces in west China regions.

The project will no doubt be continued as a long-term plan to re-allocate unbalanced medical resources between urban and rural regions, said Mao.

Large urban hospitals will be encouraged to take regular assistance to countryside as an obligation, so that the medical service can be improved and reliable while fixed medical teams can be established in the rural areas, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2006)