There are about 42000 traditional Chinese medicine clinics in grassroots medical and health institutions across the country, and currently about 46000 backbone talents in traditional Chinese medicine clinics have been trained... At a recent symposium on the construction of traditional Chinese medicine clinics, a set of figures made Tang Xudong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, deeply gratified.

Connecting the "last mile" of traditional Chinese medicine services is related to the happiness and health of millions of families. In recent years, the government has introduced many good policies to enhance the service capacity of grassroots traditional Chinese medicine. However, Tang Xudong found in his research that the service capacity of some village clinics for traditional Chinese medicine is still relatively weak, and the phenomenon of "inability to recruit, leave, and retain" traditional Chinese medicine personnel still exists. Insufficient investment funds have constrained the improvement of the service capacity of traditional Chinese medicine clinics.

Xu Anlong and other members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also share the same feeling: how to promote better implementation of policies and enable more people to see good traditional Chinese medicine at their doorstep? During last year's conference, led by Tang Xudong, a total of 13 committee members jointly submitted a proposal on accelerating the construction of the traditional Chinese medicine hospital system and enhancing the service capabilities of grassroots traditional Chinese medicine. The proposal put forward suggestions on strengthening financial investment to improve the service conditions of grassroots traditional Chinese medicine and strengthening the staffing of traditional Chinese medicine personnel.

After receiving the proposal, we attached great importance to it and quickly contacted Member Tang Xudong, "said the relevant person in charge of the Medical Administration Department of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As the leading department for handling this proposal, the Medical Administration Department has strengthened communication with Member Tang Xudong and other members through various channels such as phone calls, research, and invited discussions, explained policies, and jointly discussed solutions.

Over the past year, the constructive opinions and suggestions in the proposal have been gradually transformed into practical work measures——

The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine continues to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to further increase financial support. In 2024, through central transfer payments of 1.35 billion yuan, 450 county-level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals will be supported to carry out the "two specialties and one center" project construction, which means that each county-level traditional Chinese medicine hospital will build two traditional Chinese medicine characteristic advantage specialties and one county-level traditional Chinese medicine suitable technology promotion center; Planning and researching the Strong Foundation Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine, with the construction and connotation enhancement of traditional Chinese medicine clinics as its important content; Conduct special research in Guangxi and Jiangsu, guide provinces to establish and set up traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, equip them with a ledger of traditional Chinese medicine physicians, and promote the concept of "having hospitals and people"

In September 2024, Tang Xudong was delighted to see that 14 departments, including the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Healthy Villages", making arrangements to strengthen rural traditional Chinese medicine services, such as "striving to achieve the establishment of traditional Chinese medicine clinics and the deployment of traditional Chinese medicine doctors in all township health centers", "more than 80% of village health clinics can provide traditional Chinese medicine services", and "creating conditions to carry out the connotation construction of traditional Chinese medicine clinics and traditional Chinese medicine pavilions".

The Medical Administration Department of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine recently held a symposium on the construction of traditional Chinese medicine clinics, and specially invited Tang Xudong to attend to listen to the implementation of policies and measures to promote the construction of traditional Chinese medicine clinics and exchange experiences with local traditional Chinese medicine clinics, and asked him to further provide opinions and suggestions.

Starting from solving practical livelihood problems and responding to the urgent needs of the times, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has done a good job in the top-level design of traditional Chinese medicine hospital construction, continuously invested in support, focused on connotation construction, improved service capabilities, and strived to meet the health needs of the people at their doorstep for 'convenient access to traditional Chinese medicine and safe use of traditional Chinese medicine', achieving good results, "said Tang Xudong.

Every matter has a response, and everything has an echo. In 2024, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SACM) undertook 213 proposals from deputies to the National People's Congress and 112 proposals from members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), of which 167 were sponsored, involving aspects such as promoting the inheritance, innovation and development of traditional Chinese medicine, promoting the "going global" of traditional Chinese medicine, strengthening the capacity building of traditional Chinese medicine services, strengthening the cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine, and promoting the culture of traditional Chinese medicine.

Promoting the digitization of traditional Chinese medicine services in rural areas, building intelligent medical communities for traditional Chinese medicine in counties, accelerating the cultivation of high-quality grassroots TCM general practitioners, vigorously developing the TCM health industry, and promoting the construction of a price guarantee system for the TCM industry... When summarizing the handling of proposals, relevant officials from the Comprehensive Department of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine stated that these proposals fully reflect the key, hot, and difficult issues in the current development of TCM, and many specific suggestions are of great significance for promoting the high-quality development of TCM.

At present, all proposed suggestions have been processed on time, and representatives and committee members have expressed satisfaction or basic satisfaction with the response content. "The relevant responsible comrade of the Comprehensive Department of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine stated that in the next step, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine will continue to attach great importance to the processing of proposed suggestions, absorb and adopt the insights of representatives and committee members, and transform them into practical results to promote the inheritance, innovation and development of traditional Chinese medicine, and continuously improve the health and well-being of the people.