Society

Great progress made in rural medical reform: minister

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-06 06:25

STOCKHOLM - Priorities have been set and great progress has been seen in China's rural medical reform, said Chen Zhu, minister of Public Health of China, on Tuesday in Stockholm.

Speaking at the Nobel Forum in Karolinska Institutet, a Swedish wel-known medical university, Chen made a presentation on translational research in leukemia at the fourth Sino-Karolinska Institutet Medical Symposium.

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In addition to his academic research presentation, Chen also briefed the over 100 scientists and students from China and Sweden at the Symposium about China's medical reform in rural areas.

"Five priorities have been set in rural health care reform. A total of $125 billion will be invested by the Chinese government over the next 3 years. About 90 percent of the urban and rural medical aid shall be covered," Chen said.

To provide people with improved township health care, a total of 1,000 county hospitals have been rebuilt and training for grassroots level health services provided, Chen said.

Harriet Wallberg-Henrikson, president of Karolinska Institutet, inaugurated the symposium.

She said that as the only medical university in Sweden and Scandinavia, Karolinska Institutet began to receive Chinese students in the late 1970s. So far about 300 PhD students from China have been trained at KI.

Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Chen Mingming hailed bilateral cooperation between China and KI.

"Over the past 30 years, KI has established extensive links with leading medical universities in China," Chen said.

The topics at the symposium include neurobiology, rheumatology and inflammation, diabetes, angiogenesis, stem cell research, infection biology and cancer.

The two day Symposium will end on Wednesday.