Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Health

　　【Health poverty alleviation research and planning formulation】 First, Vice Minister Chen Xiaohong carried out field research on poverty alleviation in Aba Prefecture of Sichuan Province, held the work conference on poverty reduction by health development, and listened to the opinions and suggestions relevant parties of the province, prefecture ad county on health-based poverty alleviation work. Second, we participated in the field research on the pilot poverty alleviation and development and AIDS prevention and control in Liangshan mountain areas of Sichuan jointly organized by LGOP and relevant departments, wrote the research report and reported to relevant authority the opinions and suggestions of the Ministry of Health on the revisal of the “Planning for the Pilot Poverty Alleviation and Development and AIDS Control in Liangshan Mountain Areas”. Third, explored special ideas and support measures for the construction of Bijie experimental zone and signed with the People's Government of Guizhou Province the “Agreement on Cooperation in Supporting the Great-leap-forward Development of the Medical and Health Services in Bijie Experimental Zone”. Fourth, formulated the “Guidance on Health Poverty Alleviation during the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period” and made overall deployments on the key work on health poverty alleviation in a certain period of time in the future to guide the scientific and orderly implementation of the health poverty alleviation. Fifth, explore the guideline of the planning for the regional development and poverty reduction in Lvliang Mountain area under the leadership of the Ministry of Health.

　　【Capital investment for public health services】 In 2011, the Ministry of Health actively coordinated relevant departments to invest 132.63 billion Yuan of public health service funds for impoverished areas, of which 70.95 billion Yuan was subsidy for the new rural cooperative medical system, 15.51 billion Yuan was for basic public health service, 40.5 billion Yuan was for the expansion of seven major medical reform projects covering the national immunization panning and the hospitalized childbirth of rural women, and 19.48 billion Yuan for infrastructure construction of medical and health agencies.

　　【New rural cooperative medical system building】 In 2011, the number of the insured in the provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) to which poor areas belong reached 610 million, accounting for 95% of the total. The new rural cooperative medical system raised 143.1 billion Yuan of funds, financial departments at all levels provided subsidies of 200 Yuan per person for the insured farmers, about 70% of the medical service expenditures of the insured were reimbursed according to the policy, the system benefited nearly 900 million people and the overall planning for outpatient service reimbursement was comprehensively implemented.

　　【Maternal and child health projects】  In 2011, the central government invested 3.85 billion Yuan for the implementation of rural maternity allowance project, breast cancer and cervical cancer screening project, folic acid supplementation to prevent neural tube defects, the project of reducing maternal mortality rate and the elimination of neonatal tetanus, directly benefiting the pregnant and lying-in women in poor areas, establishing a good situation of “one enhance and three declines” (enhancement of hospital delivery rate, decline of maternal mortality rate, neonatal mortality and incidence of neonatal tetanus) and guaranteeing the health rights of women and children. We organized the implementation of child nutrition and health monitoring projects and carried out monitoring and evaluation of the nutrition and health levels and trends of the children under the age of five in poverty-stricken areas.

　　【Major disease prevention and control projects】  First, national immunization programs. In 2011, we arranged 1.21 billion Yuan for 21 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with poverty-stricken areas to carry out national immunization programs vaccine routine immunization, measles and polio vaccines immunization, mass vaccination of the hepatitis A vaccine, hemorrhagic fever vaccination, hemorrhagic fever, anthrax and leptospirosis vaccine stockpile, etc. We resowed hepatitis B vaccine for the people under 15 in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Guangxi, Hainan and Yunnan Province; and supported Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang to cope with the input-type polio epidemics. Second, prevention and control of major diseases. We carried out the prevention and control of influenza, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, brucellosis, rabies, haemorrhagic fever and dengue fever, provided for free voluntary AIDS counseling and testing services, conducted AIDS antibody testing in police and justice system and free antiretroviral treatment, launched more than 6700 patient rooms for voluntary counseling and testing, provided pre-test consulting service for more than 1.55 million person-times; opened up 547 patient rooms for methadone maintenance treatment and provided treatment for more than 265,000 drug addicts. More than 112,000 drug addicts are being treated. Third, mental health work. In the country's 170 cities and prefectures, we provided free medicines for 56,000 poor patients with dangerous behavioral tendencies, coped with 19,600 emergency cases and provided urgent hospitalization subsidy for 8,000 patients. Fourth, oral health. In the 21 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with poverty-stricken areas, we trained 4720 grassroots oral health workers, organized health education for 7.54 million people, provided free oral cavity examination for 770,000 people and provided free pit and fissure sealing service for the first permanent molar of 480,000 people. Fifth, the patriotic public health work. We organized the implementation of the toilet renovation projects in rural areas involved in health care reform, and built sanitary toilets for 1.53 million rural households.

　　【Emergency health response projects】  We guided poor areas to do a good job of preventing and controlling sudden acute infectious diseases such as plague and bird flu, new infectious diseases and unknown diseases. After most of the domestic areas suffered from natural disasters such as floods and droughts to varying degrees, the government allocated 55.7 million Yuan to support the emergency health response and post-disaster reconstruction of medical and health service agencies. In 2011, we held trainings for 4144 emergency health response workers to improve the emergency response capacity of grassroots medical staff.

　　【Health supervision projects】 We arranged 560 million Yuan of funds to support the health oversight agencies in poor areas to buy law enforcement vehicles, law enforcement forensics tools and on-site rapid detection equipment, and allocated 23.2064 million Yuan for the training of health supervision personnel, occupational disease prevention and capacity building personnel and food safety capacity building personnel.

　　【Health care personnel training projects】 First, held job training of health personnel in rural areas, obstetrics and gynecology knowledge training of township and village-level health workers, and medical reform policy training of county and township health managers for 585,600 person-times; Second, organized medical and health institutions of second grade or above to provide counterpart support for township hospitals. Each aiding unit dispatched a medical team of three people to provide counterpart support for a township hospital, involving a total of 10,932 people. Third, in order to strengthen the service capacity of grass-roots medical workers in poverty-stricken areas and promote the rational use of drugs, we trained 30,500 pharmaceutical workers for poor areas; Fourth, implemented the project of “going to the west”. We successively held 16 training courses in the western provinces and autonomous regions such as Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan, covering 1,672 medical staff and hospital training managers; Fifth, implement health personnel training projects in the western regions and the pediatrician training projects in the central and western areas. We cultivated 350 health care technicians and 16,359 city and county-level pediatricians for poor areas.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】 1. Field research for poverty alleviation. In October 2011, Vice Minister Chen Xiaohong headed a delegation to carry out field research in Aba Prefecture. In the field research, Vice Minister Chen Xiaohong listened to the work reports of Sichuan Provincial Department of Health and the governments of Aba Prefecture, Heishui County and Rangtang County on poverty alleviation by developing health industry, visited Aba Prefecture People's Hospital, Aba Prefecture Illness Control Center and Heishui County’s relevant medical and health institutions, and initially determined the specific projects and the amount of funds for the Ministry of Health to support Heishui and Rangtang County in 2011.

2. Investment of anti-poverty funds. In May 2011, the Ministry of Health issued the “Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Health on Continuing to Raise Donations for Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation” and raised funds from relevant units of the ministry to support the fixed-point poverty alleviation. As of the end of 2011, a total of 3.66 million Yuan of relief funds was raised. Based on the actual needs of the poor counties involved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation of the Ministry of Health, we allocated 3 million Yuan of relief funds to implement the poverty-relief projects of the two counties. 1 million Yuan was issued for Heishui County to hold professional technical training for township hospitals and village clinics and conduct capacity building for maternal and child health institutions and emergency department building for the County Hospital. 2 million Yuan was issued for the County People's Hospital to purchase one eight-slice spiral CT. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health requested Sichuan Provincial Department of Health to seriously guide the project construction, actively provide technical support and organize timely supervision on the use of funds to ensure the earmarked use of funds and the project effectiveness in conjunction with the sending cadres of the Ministry of Health.

3. Technological support. Based on the current situation of lack of professional health care personnel and service capacity of Aba Prefecture, Heishui County and Rangtang County, after making active coordination, the Ministry of Health designated the People's Hospital of Peking University to set up a medical and health service center jointly with the People's Hospital of Aba Prefecture, Heishui County People's Hospital and Rangtang County People's Hospital, and set up the mechanism for personnel training, distance medical service, education and training to improve the medical service capacity and level of Aba Prefecture and the two poor counties. Second, giving full play to the professional and technical advantages of sending cadres, based on in-depth understanding of the current status of the radiological protection work of Aba Prefecture Hospital, to act as a go-between for the Prefecture Disease Control Center to contact the National Disease Control Center, we carried out field research on the current status of radiation hygiene of the hospitals in Aba Prefecture and the research on cosmic radiation and the health of residents living in places with high altitudes with project fund of 100,000 Yuan.