More than 1,000 tertiary hospitals delivered paired assistance to 1,172 county-level hospitals in 832 national-level poverty-stricken counties, carrying out at least 760,000 telemedicine operations during the country's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), according to the latest data from the National Health Commission.

More than 118,000 medicals were sent to support hospitals based in poor counties as a result of China's wide-scale efforts to mobilize all society to aid in the extreme poverty-elimination battle. The medics were sent by major urban hospitals.

Since the paired assistance started in 2016, China has seen a marked improvement in terms of service and management of county-level hospitals in impoverished counties.

A third-party evaluation result shows that nearly 80 percent of county-level hospitals in 832 impoverished counties could provide standard medical care services.

Through dispatching doctors to help local hospitals and making telemedicine services available, tertiary hospitals help them improve medical care quality and accelerate information building, thus locals don't need to go to city hospitals when seriously ill.

(With input from Xinhua)