Shenzhen city of south China's Guangdong Province will expand community health center network to cover all the residential communities in the city by the end of this year, according to the municipal government's 2007 work agenda on public health released Monday.

More than 70 million yuan (US$9.06 million) will be allocated from the municipal government budget for the establishment of the community clinics, each of which will have at least one full-time general practitioner to attend to the needs of residents, the Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

Part of the money will be used to train the doctors to serve in communities, an unnamed official was quoted by the News as saying. But the official didn't elaborate on what kind of training will be given to the community doctors.

The network is aimed at reducing the pressure on the city's many hospitals.

"Many people went to seek treatment for minor sickness which is not necessary to go to a hospital in the past, because there wasn't any community clinic in their neighborhood. It was a waste of resources for public hospitals, and a waste of time for the patient," the official said, adding that the newly built network will improve the efficiency of the health sector.

However, the official didn't say how many additional clinics will be built, or which communities were uppermost on the government agenda.

The money is part of the 820 million yuan that the government will spend on public health and hygiene this year, up 32.2 percent from last year's budget.

“The increase is the biggest in the government budget, and the amount will be used to subsidize the city's hospitals,” said the official, adding that it shows the government's determination to solve the long-standing complaints about high medical costs voiced by many residents.

Hospitals have been ordered to reduce fees and lower drug prices in response to public discontent about "unreasonably high medical charges," the official said.

(Shenzhen Daily March 21, 2007)