China aims to ensure that all residents can access high-quality traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) services within a 15-minute journey from their homes over the next five years, a senior health official said Tuesday.
China recently issued an action plan to strengthen TCM services at the grassroots level, aiming to improve service accessibility to meet people’s needs for TCM care.
“The plan is not only a foundational step in advancing the Healthy China initiative and revitalizing TCM at the grassroots level, but also a concrete measure to accelerate the development of a tiered healthcare delivery system,” said Meng Qingbin, an official of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
He noted that the implementation of the plan will channel more high-quality medical resources to primary healthcare institutions, strengthen their capacity to diagnose and treat common, frequently occurring and chronic diseases, and enable residents to access comprehensive, life-cycle healthcare services close to home.
The plan outlines seven key initiatives and 25 major tasks, covering areas such as optimizing grassroots TCM service networks, improving service capacity, and expanding the grassroots TCM workforce.
By 2030, the plan aims to ensure broader access to TCM services, with a focus on improving the service capacity of county-level TCM hospitals. It also seeks to promote the application of TCM techniques and raise public awareness of TCM health culture.
The plan also specifies measures to strengthen TCM clinical departments in non-TCM medical institutions and encourage and regulate the participation of private sectors in delivering TCM services at the primary level.
It calls for each county-level TCM hospital to establish at least two specialty departments with distinctive TCM strengths. It supports the development of smart, county-level shared service centers for Chinese herbal medicine and outlines measures to expand the grassroots TCM workforce.
The document was jointly issued by 11 government departments, including the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the National Health Commission and the National Development and Reform Commission.