Chen Bin, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission

Health work runs through the entire life cycle of individuals. It not only safeguards personal health but also provides a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the city. It serves as an indispensable cornerstone for people's well-being, a bottom line for safety, and a driving force for development in advancing Chinese modernization.

The health system in Guangzhou always keeps in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment to Guangdong and Guangzhou, deeply grasps the spirit of the General Secretary's important expositions on building a Healthy China, and consciously shoulders the political responsibility and mission of the times to protect the health of citizens and promote high-quality population development. We unswervingly follow the direction pointed out by the General Secretary, resolutely uphold the "Two Establishments" and resolutely achieve the "Two Safeguards" through practical actions, and take on the responsibility of taking the lead, setting an example, and playing a key role to consolidate the foundation of health and contribute to the cause of health for Guangzhou to take the lead in high-quality development.

Upholding the Entrustment and Undertaking the Mission

Striving to Compose a New Chapter of Healthy Guangzhou

At this crucial moment when the whole country is thoroughly studying and implementing the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, concluding the 14th Five-Year Plan, and formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan, the General Secretary paid an inspection visit to Guangdong and attended the opening ceremony of the 15th National Games, delivering a series of important speeches and making a series of important instructions, which pointed out the way forward and provided fundamental guidelines for us to complete the key stage and strive to create a new situation in modernization drive.

Health is the cornerstone of urban development, safeguarding the bottom line of people's well-being and supporting the sustainable vitality and competitiveness of the economy and society. To do a good job in the coming year and formulate a blueprint for the next five years, we must consciously examine and promote health work in the overall development of the city, the province and even the whole country. Looking forward to the next five years, we will take "a beautiful and livable flower city, a dynamic global city" as our vision, and take building a health service system matching a leading national central city and an open core engine of the Greater Bay Area as our core task. We will make every effort to further promote Healthy Guangzhou and high-quality population development, improve the health service system continuously, enhance service capabilities and levels, strengthen the capacity for health science and technology innovation, and steadily improve residents' health levels, so as to help Guangzhou's economic and social development.

Focusing on Health Science and Technology Innovation

Building a Globally Influential Medical and Health Center

To meet the needs of improving urban functions, promoting coordinated development of the Greater Bay Area, and advancing the cause of health, we will focus on health science and technology innovation to build a globally influential medical and health center.

In terms of building medical specialty brands, we plan to establish a diversified pattern of medical service supply. We will fully support the construction of national medical centers and regional medical centers, and further promote the construction of five international medical centers co-built by the municipal commission and the province. For the "golden signs" of Guangzhou's medical care, such as respiratory medicine, ophthalmology, pediatrics, nephrology, and oncology, we will promote them to rank among the world's first-class. For more dominant disciplines, we will foster their further development by building a number of clinical medical research institutes and diagnosis and treatment centers for major, difficult and rare diseases, cultivating municipal key clinical specialties, developing high-tech, major and characteristic clinical technologies, and establishing alliances of TCM dominant specialties.

We also recognize that in the face of new challenges such as accelerating population aging and upgrading residents' health needs, we must find solutions through scientific and technological innovation and digital transformation. The Plenary Session of the Municipal Party Committee proposed to "develop new quality productive forces in light of local conditions". For the health field, this means vigorously developing "new quality productive forces in health".

We will rely on national-level platforms such as the National AI Application Pilot Base, Guangzhou National Laboratory, and Biotech Island Laboratory to promote the in-depth integration and two-way empowerment of artificial intelligence, big data, biotechnology and clinical medicine. We will strengthen and make good use of the industry's trusted data space, allowing massive health data to "come alive" and "be utilized" on the premise of safety and compliance, so as to assist precision medicine, intelligent management and scientific decision-making. We will support cutting-edge research such as human cell lineage, stem cells and regenerative medicine, further promote the construction of the Guangzhou Research Hospital Alliance and the "1+N+X" clinical trial consortium, accelerate the transformation and application of innovative drugs, medical devices and diagnosis and treatment technologies, and truly turn scientific and technological innovation into an "increment" in the efficiency of health services.

Consolidating the Public Health Security Network

Improving Health Emergency Response Capacity

A solid public health system and a three-dimensional, efficient and reliable emergency response system are the source of a city's sense of security. We will focus on improving the capacity for infectious disease monitoring and early warning, on-site disposal and laboratory testing, fully promote the construction of the provincial regional public health center and four regional testing centers, enhance the capacity of grass-roots disease prevention and control, and build the first scientific line of defense for urban safety. Meanwhile, we will promote the coordinated operation of the four-level public health committees at the municipal, district, town (sub-district) and village (community) levels with high quality, and integrate public health services into the daily work of grass-roots governance.

On March 21 last year, the signing and launching ceremony of the first aviation medical rescue base in Guangzhou was held at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Datansha Campus). The base operates with a permanent aircraft fleet at the hospital, striving to play an active role in the evacuation of the wounded in public emergencies, the urgent delivery of expert teams, medical support for major events, and the transfer of critically ill patients.

By adding first-aid stations, accelerating the construction of the municipal emergency medical rescue command center and striving to build a provincial emergency medical rescue base, and establishing a "1-hour aviation medical rescue circle", we will continuously improve the health emergency response capacity.

People-Centered Holistic Lifecycle Health

Promoting High-Quality Population Development

We deeply understand that the "elderly and children" in every family are the greatest concerns of all. Precisely for this reason, they are also the key groups we are committed to taking good care of with all our efforts. We will further optimize the fertility support policy system and incentive mechanisms, and strive to create a sound social atmosphere that respects and supports childbearing.

Community-based childcare service facilities will achieve full coverage, and inclusive childcare places will account for over 70% of the city’s total. Childcare services will become more accessible, affordable and reliable.

On December 26 last year, the Guangzhou Comprehensive Childcare Service Center was officially put into operation, marking that the construction of Guangzhou’s inclusive childcare service system has stepped into a new stage of specialization and integration.

For the health of the elderly, we will focus on improving the capacity of medical services such as rehabilitation nursing and chronic disease management, comprehensively promote the integrated prevention and control of chronic diseases, and explore the gradual inclusion of common geriatric chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic kidney disease into community screening and health management.

Meanwhile, we will actively explore integrated service models such as "home-based hospital beds plus elderly care beds", promote the extension of medical services to communities and families, and strive to build a diversified and continuous care service system, so that every elderly person can enjoy a healthy and peaceful old age in Guangzhou.

Enhancing the Medical Treatment Experience

We are committed to making it more convenient and comfortable for citizens to seek medical treatment. To this end, we will continue to vigorously promote the sinking of high-quality medical services to the grass-roots level. By implementing the project of strengthening basic medical and health care, we will comprehensively enhance the capacity of community health institutions in the prevention and treatment of common diseases, rehabilitation care, traditional Chinese medicine services and home-based medical services. Taking closely integrated urban medical groups as the carrier, we will smooth the two-way referral, promote the tilt of resources such as experts, registration quotas and hospital beds to the grass-roots level, so that more citizens can enjoy continuous and reliable medical services "at their doorsteps", and services such as home-based hospital beds will become more popular.

In addition, we will accelerate the construction of smart medical care, innovate online service models such as "Internet + Nursing Care" and "Internet + Maternal and Child Health", and use big data and artificial intelligence to empower personalized health management, so that data can travel more and people can travel less, and effectively improve the convenience and experience of medical treatment.

Deepening Coordination in Regional Health Development

Actively Developing International Medical Services

As the core engine of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, we will strive to strengthen the capacity of medical and health services and the advantages of the innovative pharmaceutical and medical device industry, drive the overall improvement of the regional health level, and inject stronger momentum into the well-being of people in the Greater Bay Area. By improving the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment cooperation network based on medical consortia, we will realize mutual recognition of inspections and smooth referral, and improve the overall medical service capacity of the Guangzhou metropolitan area. We will accelerate the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Medical Center, expand the coverage of the "Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Medical Devices Connect" policy, co-construct and share the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint diagnosis and treatment platform, the integrated public health network and specialty alliances, so that more residents in the Greater Bay Area can enjoy the health dividends brought by regional coordinated development. We will deepen industrial coordination, take the Guangzhou Research Hospital Alliance as the platform, strengthen university-enterprise cooperation, optimize the clinical transformation system, expand data application, strengthen international cooperation, accelerate the transformation and implementation of pharmaceutical and medical device R&D achievements, realize the mutual promotion and common strengthening of the health cause and the biomedical industry, and provide solid support for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to build a world-class health industry highland.

Relying on Guangzhou's advantages in R&D and production of innovative pharmaceuticals and medical devices, we will focus on promoting the "going global" of advanced medical devices with independent intellectual property rights, actively respond to the medical needs of countries co-building the "Belt and Road", and expand channels for international technological cooperation and product promotion. Supported by high-end medical services, physical examination and health care, international medical education and research cooperation, industrial integration and innovation, and the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine, we will make good use of policy advantages such as the application of cell therapy technology to build an international medical innovation and development demonstration zone featuring "point-area integration" and "diversified opening-up".

On August 22 last year, the 2025 Guangzhou Medical and Health Industry Expo was grandly opened. Hosted by the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality, the Expo, with the theme of "Developing New Quality Productive Forces and Sharing a Healthy Future", built a "two-way empowerment" platform for the medical and health industry, promoting the innovation of biomedicine and industrial coordinated development.

2026

Running the First Leg of the 15th Five-Year Plan Well

To run the first leg of the crucial 15th Five-Year Plan period well, we must start with a sprint and maintain momentum throughout the year, striving for accelerated progress and new achievements.

Optimizing the construction of the medical service system has always been a "must-answer question" for us. We are fully supporting the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center in establishing a national children's medical center, promoting the innovative development of characteristic international medical care in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and steadily advancing the construction of 50 diagnosis and treatment centers for major, difficult and rare diseases. We will continue to promote the expansion, sinking and balanced layout of high-quality medical resources, further implement the project of strengthening basic medical and health care, and further improve the effectiveness of the construction of grass-roots characteristic departments and drug supply guarantee. Meanwhile, we will accelerate the construction of demonstration projects for the inheritance and innovative development of traditional Chinese medicine, and strive to create a "Guangzhou model" of a strong city of traditional Chinese medicine.

This year, in the field of public health, while vigorously improving the capacity of disease prevention and control institutions, we will make good use of the advantages of the four-level public health committees in grass-roots governance, promote the regular development of patriotic health campaigns, improve the long-term mechanism for the joint prevention and control of mosquito-borne infectious diseases, and further strengthen the construction of mental health service networks.

Reform never stops, and development never ceases. We are further deepening the reform of public hospitals oriented towards public welfare, continuously improving the coordinated working mechanism of medical care, medical insurance and pharmaceuticals, and promoting the organic unity and effective connection of the "three medicines" in terms of goals, policies, information and supervision. We will strengthen the National AI Application Pilot Base, and give full play to the potential of health data relying on big data platforms and trusted data spaces. In addition, with the construction of the regional clinical trial consortium, we will vigorously promote the implementation of major achievement transformation projects this year.

In the key areas related to people's well-being, we will continue to improve the whole-chain fertility support policies, optimize the guarantee of medical expenses for childbirth, implement subsidies for child-rearing and pre-school education, improve the "1+11+N" comprehensive network of childcare services, encourage qualified kindergartens and enterprises and institutions to carry out childcare services, and accelerate the construction of a number of birth-friendly hospitals, child-friendly hospitals and early pregnancy care clinics. We will vigorously promote the health management of the elderly, strengthen the construction of the service system for rehabilitation, nursing, chronic disease management and the care of disabled elderly, and enhance the health management of occupational groups. Last year, we implemented a number of practical projects to address the difficulties and blockages in medical treatment, such as "one registration valid for three days", "unaccompanied wards" and "Internet + Nursing Care". This year, we will continue to take various measures to further improve the people's medical treatment experience, so that the achievements of high-quality development of health can better benefit every citizen.

Source: Guangzhou Health Publicity, Guangzhou Daily