China aims to increase the number of intensive care beds to 15 per 100,000 people nationwide, as well as the number of hospital beds that can be quickly converted to provide such care to 10 per 100,000 by the end of next year, according to a guideline released by the National Health Commission and seven other government departments on Monday.

The document said that bolstering intensive care facilities and services represents an important step in improving the country's overall treatment capability when dealing with major and acute public health events. The ability to ensure intensive care treatment has been in highlighted since the COVID-19 epidemic struck China.

By the end of next year, each provincial-level region should have at least one general hospital whose treatment capacity is on par with that of a national-level regional medical center specializing in intensive care. In the meantime, each county-level region should have at least one hospital whose intensive care department meets the standards of that of a medium-sized urban hospital, said the document.

Regular intensive care beds should comprise no less than 4 percent of all hospital beds at tertiary general hospitals, traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, and hospitals specializing in infectious diseases and pediatrics.

In addition, more efforts will be made to improve intensive care training for doctors and nurses, and to strengthen intensive care education among medical students.

Du Bin, vice-president of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that China's intensive care beds grew by 36 percent from 2011 to 2015, and the number of intensive care doctors and nurses increased by 35 percent and 55 percent, respectively.

Data released by the National Health Commission in late December 2022 shows that China had about 181,000 intensive care beds in total, or 12.8 intensive care beds per 100,000.