Joe Town, Health-room Living Space: A National And Social Relations Perspective

Chinese government has established barefoot doctors system and rural cooperative medical system in rural areas after 1949.Then the establishment of the Group Health Clinics used to become the main place for farmers in rural communities.The Group Health Clinics that used to bear important functions had come to their collapses gradually with the introduction of Household Responsibility System and losing the village intensity of input of local health services.This phenomenon created system conditions for individualized village doctors in the village and layed the foundation of the value base of hunting for the maximum profits of the village doctors.However,under the local rules of countryside and the restriction from the clan and interpersonnal relation,village clinics in which village doctors are the main actors manage to construct a harmonious relation with community while serving community and seeking gains as well as eclipsing its profitable idea. Facing the interference and supervision from the formal power, such as the rural health integration and the introduction of the new rural cooperative medical care,etc,the village clinics are regulating its operation behavior while seeking after the feasible way—outs.Meanwhile,the township hospital takes the attitude of default to the modifications of the village clinics and accept the strategy of compromise to achieve a win-win situation with state and society (township hospital and villiage clinics).For the demands of rural communities "native",the village clinics have become the places in which the farmers can deal with disease emotionally and the maintainer of the concept of local health.Under various restrications,the village clinics'existence and operation formed a specific model.This kind of pattern bases on the countryside social economy follows the interactive rule in countryside and accepts the supervision and governess from the formal power,so as to reach the harmonious development.The village clinics are the most basic unit of the rural three-tier health networks and the first-level contact point of the national health system and rural residents.It makes health care, prevention and health services directly extended to each peasant family.The village clinics are not only the most basic units terminal of national institutions in the health care system, but also organizations of village community.As the most basic unit of the national medical system,they should keep touch with other national institutions (such as County Health Bureau,and township hospital),accept their management and assume the obligations.Meanwhile they locate in villages and serve the community as the community orgnization,whose operation process reveal a typical feature of countryside.This paper takes village clinics of Q town as the study case.This author describes and analyses the running roles,the role in community and society,the development tendency of village clinics in the context of transition,social structure and policy background and economic foundation.And this paper found:(1)Village clinics' existence and operation is in line with the logic of the rural community.This kind of pattern bases on the countryside social economy follows the interactive rule in countryside and accepts the supervision and governess from the formal power(County Health Bureau,and township hospital).(2)Village climes demonstrate the power of the state obedience,while seeking after the feasible way—outs in the process.In a word,the village clinics' emergence and development are the process of natural evolution with the development of economy and society.In the development process,we should accord to local conditions so as to ensure a healthyand order development of village clinics.