Tuo Biguang: Impoverished areas need better county-level medical treatment

Tuo Biguang trains medical workers at a county-level hospital. [Photo/ddcpc.cn]

Ahead of the national two sessions, which will be held in Beijing in early March, Tuo Biguang is preparing his proposals, focusing on the construction of county-level hospitals and the improvement of basic medical insurance.

As a deputy to the National People's Congress and a director at the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Tuo has attached significant importance to medical treatment capabilities in impoverished areas.

During the past few years, Tuo has visited more than 60 county-level hospitals in Guizhou to learn about their development problems and difficulties.

According to Tuo, digestive system diseases are common among residents of impoverished mountainous areas. However, many local hospitals lack a complete diagnosis and treatment system and doctors who are familiar with endoscope equipment, forcing patients to seek medical advice at municipal and provincial hospitals, which wastes time and money and increases patient risks.

After years of investigation, Tuo is convinced that the only way to solve health problems for rural people is to improve the medical treatment ability of county-level hospitals.

Tuo has handed in related proposals at the national two sessions since 2018 and received government support. So far, half of Guizhou's county-level hospitals have established a completed diagnose and treatment mechanism for digestive system diseases.

In December 2020, Tuo and his colleagues promoted the establishment of Guizhou's alliance for gastroenterology, covering six prefecture (municipal)-level hospitals and 45 county-level hospitals to boost the circulation of medical resources and personnel.

Tuo said that the government should keep increasing financial investment to enhance infrastructure construction and personnel training to fill the capacity gap between medical treatment in West China's impoverished mountainous areas and East China's developed areas.