Healthcare in Rural Areas: Family doctors provide basic care for impoverished people

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To make sure low-income people have access to basic medical services, China is striving to build a hierarchical medical system. Village doctors are at the frontlines of that effort and proving to be an essential part. CGTN's Ning Hong has more.

Zhai Dalong and his wife are village doctors. They've worked in this small village for ten years. Today, they are paying a routine visit to his patients.

ZHAI DALONG, VILLAGE DOCTOR DAMING COUNTY, HANDAN CITY, HEBEI PROVINCE "We are part of a group of doctors from three levels of hospitals: county, town, and village. We do follow-up visits for patients with chronic diseases, especially those from low-income families."

Zhai is now also the family practitioner for low-income families in three villages, providing medical consultations and keeping track of health records. And it's all done free of charge.

ZHAI DALONG, VILLAGE DOCTOR DAMING COUNTY, HANDAN CITY, HEBEI PROVINCE "I am adjusting the dosage of these medicines for her because her blood pressure has been rising ever since she left the hospital."

This is part of a tiered medical system that China is building. Zhai is among doctors who work on the front lines, helping China's most impoverished people.

"Many of my patients are reluctant to take medicine or too poor to pay for it. Sometimes I charge them no fee."

Inside a house provided by the local government, Zhai runs a small clinic. As more young people now work in cities, his patients are either the old, or young children.

"I try to learn everything. We are general practitioners."

He also studied traditional Chinese medicine, which is known to be effective in disease prevention and is more favored by older generations.

ZHAI DALONG, VILLAGE DOCTOR DAMING COUNTY, HANDAN CITY, HEBEI PROVINCE "We used to try really hard to persuade people to take hypertension drugs. Now they are aware of the dangers and will take the initiative and ask me about them. Changes are happening, we used to treat diseases, now we help prevent diseases."

Many villages still don't have doctors. Zhai and his colleagues are going to set up a free clinic today in a remote village. More doctors are encouraged to join the effort. They are village doctors and doctors from several nearby hospitals. The medicine is provided by a pharmaceutical enterprise for free.

YANG CHENJUAN, PEDIATRICIAN HOSPITAL OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE, DAMING COUNTY "I just joined this team over a year ago, but I have visited several villages in my spare time, it is a good experience to help these people."

WANG QIAN, DOCTOR MATERNITY AND CHILD CARE CENTER "We are participating in a national project to treat cataracts for free. We also must make more rural residents aware of more poverty-reducing policies."

So far, Zhai Dalong and his colleague have visited 80 villages and helped over a hundred thousand people.

NING HONG DAMING COUNTY, HANDAN CITY, HEBEI PROVINCE "What these doctors have been doing is part of China's effort to get rid of poverty, which includes providing basic medical services to people who live in remote areas and poverty-stricken regions. Ning Hong, CGTN, Hebei province."