Reform of China's medical and health system has been "basically unsuccessful", the China Youth Daily reported on Friday.

Ge Yanfeng, deputy chief of the social development research department under the Development Research Centre of the State Council (DRCSC), China's cabinet, said in an exclusive interview with the paper that there are "major" philosophical and practical problems with the reform.

The DRCSC and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly published a study titled "China's Reform of the Medical and Health System."

The research team was made up of experts from the DRCSC, Beijing University and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

The report said the reform has led to a decline in both the fairness of medical services and the efficiency of investment in the sector.

The "business- and market-orientation" of the medical and health system is "absolutely wrong" and conflicts with the proper goal of public health, it concluded.

"There are obvious flaws with the urban medical insurance system and its prospects are not good," the report said.

China's medical and health reform is itself badly in need of reform, said the report.

(China Daily July 30, 2005)