China on the Move: Tibetans enjoy better medical care

Watch Video

Play Video

China's push to improve health care has been making inroads in the country's southwest. As our reporter Zhang Lu finds out in Tibet, farmers and herdsmen are now enjoying better medical care services.

Luozhu is a doctor in Xumai Village near Lhasa.

Each day he visits patients battling a wide variety of ailments.

Forty-eight-year-old Guoguo has suffered from Kashin-Beck disease for years. Recently she has had great difficulty walking and been unable to attend appointments at the village clinic. Instead Doctor Luozhu comes to see her once a week.

Guoguo, patient from Xumai Village, Lhasa, said, "Today, I spent 14 yuan. There is still more than 800 yuan left in my account."

Guoguo's account was set up by the cooperative medicare service system when she registered in 2003. Since then, the account has covered all her medical expenses.

Dr. Luozhu said, "I come to see her once a week. Her family is poor and now she can hardly walk. The medical welfare helps her a lot. "

Guoguo is one of many Tibetans to take advantage of the national healthcare policy. In the village clinic, doctor Luozhu cares for dozens of patients everyday.

Almost all of them joined the national medical care system on voluntary basis. They pay 10 yuan a year while the government's subsidy contributes 140 yuan.

A patient from Xumai Village said, "The policy is good. The government gives us a subsidy, which means we can enjoy free treatment. It's convenient."

As of last year, about 94 percent of farmers and herdsmen in Tibet had joined the system. Medical infrastructure and facilities have also improved greatly in the region.

Doctor Luozhu says his clinic is one the beneficiaries.

Dr. Luozhu said, "Conditions are much better now. The local government has invested more than 300-thousand yuan in building the clinic."

Since 1980, the central government has invested about 2 billion yuan, or 300 million US dollars, to improve medical care in Tibet. The average life expectancy in the region has nearly doubled from 35 years old in 1951 to 67 years old today.

But despite the big strides forward, medical staff numbers need to be boosted.

Dr. Luozhu said, "We are short of hands. Now there are only three in our clinic, but there are too many patients. What's more, we are lacking technology support."

In this box is an x-ray machine. It has remained unopened for nearly two years because the clinic lacks a technician to operate it. Doctor Luozhu hopes that will soon change.