The Communist Party of China Central Committee held a press conference on the morning of October 24 to introduce and interpret the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC. At the conference, Lei Haichao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the National Health Commission, elaborated on the key points of health work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Let's take a look at the details!

Key Tasks for Health Work During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period

Accelerating the Construction of Healthy China

1. Implementing the Strategy of Prioritizing Health DevelopmentImprove the policy and institutional system for health promotion, enhance the effectiveness of the Patriotic Health Campaign, and raise the average life expectancy and people's health level. The strategic requirement of prioritizing development shall be implemented in planning, public investment, governance and performance evaluation.

2. Balancing Development and Security to Provide Strong Guarantee and Support for Economic and Social DevelopmentStrengthen public health capacity and prevent and control major infectious diseases. Actively carry out comprehensive prevention and control of chronic diseases. Improve emergency medical rescue, blood supply guarantee and emergency response capabilities in an all-round way. Strengthen mental health and psychiatric services.

3. Providing the Public with Equitable, Accessible, Systematic, Continuous, High-Quality and Efficient Health ServicesImprove the coordinated development and governance mechanism of medical care, medical insurance and pharmaceuticals, and promote hierarchical medical treatment. Advance the provincial-level pooling of basic medical insurance, optimize policies on centralized drug procurement, medical insurance payment and the use of surplus funds. Guided by public welfare, deepen the reform of public hospitals in terms of staffing, service pricing, salary system and comprehensive supervision, and strengthen the operation guarantee of county and community-level medical and health institutions. Optimize the functional positioning and layout of medical institutions, and implement the Project for Strengthening Grassroots Medical and Health Services. Promote the inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and advance the integration of TCM and Western medicine. Support the development of innovative drugs and medical devices.Source: Press Conference of the Communist Party of China Central Committee

Promoting High-Quality Population Development

1. Building a Fertility-Friendly SocietyAdvocate a positive outlook on marriage and childbearing, optimize fertility support and incentive policies, give full play to the combined effect of policies such as childcare subsidies and personal income tax deductions, carry out in-depth demonstration pilots of childcare service subsidies, develop inclusive childcare and integrated nursery-kindergarten services, and effectively reduce the costs of childbearing, rearing and education for families. Improve and implement the maternity insurance and maternity leave system. Strengthen health services for women and children.

2. Promoting Elderly CareImprove the policy mechanism for the coordinated development of elderly care undertakings and industries. Optimize the supply of basic elderly care services. Develop integrated medical and elderly care services. Implement the long-term care insurance system, improve the care system for elderly people with disabilities or cognitive impairments, and expand the supply of rehabilitation care and hospice care services.

3. Promoting the Role of the Elderly in SocietySteadily implement the progressive delay of the statutory retirement age, optimize age-limit policies in employment, social security and other fields, actively develop the elderly human resources, and grow the silver economy. Health work and population services should not only focus on key groups such as the elderly, children and women, but also provide the whole population with comprehensive services covering prevention, health care, diagnosis and treatment, and rehabilitation, laying a solid health and population foundation for Chinese-style modernization.Source: Press Conference of the Communist Party of China Central Committee

Three Key Areas for Further Improvement and Optimization in Health Work

1. Shifting the Service Orientation to a Health-Centered Model to Help the Public Stay Healthier and Avoid IllnessGovernments at all levels, society and individuals should implement the concept of "prevention first", truly take the strategy of prioritizing health development as a priority goal for economic and social development, and strengthen inter-departmental coordination and efficient service supervision guided by health promotion.

   Vigorously carry out the Healthy China Initiative and the Patriotic Health Campaign, actively develop family doctor services, strengthen health knowledge publicity, gradually improve residents' health literacy, so that scientific health knowledge and popular science can reach ordinary households, and enable everyone to become an active participant and manager of their own health.

   Manage health risk factors to effectively intervene in and control issues affecting physical and mental health, ensuring that everyone enjoys a healthier and higher-quality life.Source: Press Conference of the Communist Party of China Central Committee

2. Improving the Service Model with a Focus on a Seamless Whole-Chain Approach to Help the Public Avoid Severe Illness and Achieve Early RehabilitationFocus on tackling chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, improve the service system for early screening, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, strengthen the simultaneous prevention and treatment of multiple diseases, and further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health outcomes.

   Emphasize precise intervention at the prevention stage, multi-disciplinary collaboration at the treatment stage, continuous services at the rehabilitation stage, and long-term health follow-up at the management stage, so that all links can be truly connected, activated and strengthened.

   Further strengthen the remodeling and reconstruction of service processes, build consultation and referral platforms within and between hospitals, entrust professional medical affairs to professional institutions and personnel, and help patients receive medical treatment in a scientific, standardized, orderly and convenient manner.Source: Press Conference of the Communist Party of China Central Committee

3. Enhancing the Public Welfare and Equity of the Service System to Make Medical Services More Accessible and Efficient for the PublicPromote the coordinated development and governance of medical care, medical insurance and pharmaceuticals, and deepen the reform of public hospitals guided by public welfare. Comprehensively promote the experience of medical reform in Sanming, Fujian at the prefecture-level city level.

   Further strengthen the functional positioning and coordination of primary, tertiary and community-level medical and health institutions, and stabilize the operation of secondary hospitals.

   Implement the Project for Strengthening Grassroots Medical and Health Services, focus on sinking medical personnel and services to the grassroots level, vigorously develop assistance and collaboration mechanisms among medical institutions at all levels, promote mobile medical services and telemedicine, ensure that the general public can access convenient, efficient and relatively high-quality medical and health services nearby, and drive more significant progress in hierarchical medical treatment.Source: Press Conference of the Communist Party of China Central CommitteeOverall Source: Health News