Study Of Chinese Traditional Rural Cooperative Medical Care System

Chinese government has strived to establish effective medical care system since the establishing of People's Republic of China. From mid 1950s to early 1980s, rural traditional cooperative medical system was one of which involved in the widest areas and benefited most people. As a bold and wholesome attempt of the Chinese rural medical care, this system has helped ease the situation of lack in both doctors and medicine, increase the accessibility and availability of the farmers' demanding basic medical care service, and also improve the health level of rural population. It's acknowledged as valuable experiences of rural medical care for the developing countries by the international community.Three sections are includes: Introduction, Body (composed of five chapters) and Conclusion.Section 1 is Introduction which introduces the origin of this thesis' title, the significance of the research, the up-to-now related research both at home and abroad, focal points, difficult points, some innovations, main methods and the structure of this dissertation. It enables the readers to understand the academic value, historical and realistic significance of this research.Chapter 1 introduced the origin and rise of Chinese rural traditional cooperative medical system. At the very founding of the People's Republic of China, the medical conditions of the whole country were terrible, lacking in doctors and medicines everywhere, especially in the rural areas. Thus Central People's Government adopted a series of positive measures to deal with the extremely backward medical conditions in rural areas. "Four Guidelines" for medical care was put forward for the first time, pointing out the direction of New China's medical care undertaking. Then with 20 kinds of infectious disease that endangered the people's health most aimed at as goal, smallpox, pest infestation, cholera that endangered national defense and economy aimed at as the focal point, New China carried out epidemic prevention vigorously which laid the first stone for the future. The rise of agricultural cooperation movement constituted the organizational foundation for the primary form of rural cooperativemedical service——polyclinic. In the height of agricultural cooperation movement,agricultural health centers were founded, which marked the start of Chinese rural traditional cooperative medical system.Chapter 2 discussed the development of rural traditional cooperative medical system. Mao Zedong's weighing on rural medical care, the compulsory choice of the farmers'medical care in a dualistic structure society and "the Great Leap Forward" Movement and the People's Commune Movement altogether made popularizing and expanding cooperative medical system one of the important parts in the construction of people's commune in every region. Three-level network of health services developed rapidly in the People's Commune and improved the rural conditions of lacking in doctors and medicines significantly. Three-level network of health services correlated closely to rural cooperative medical system. The former was the latter's supporting system and execution platform providing the latter with organizational guarantee to carry out its program, while the latter was the former's tulle background and foundation. What's more, the speeding up of the training of Chinese rural health officers in mid 1960s provided human resources for the development of the cooperative system.Chapter 3 depicts the prosperity of the traditional rural cooperative medical care system. Through carrying out itinerant medical service with health resources in rural areas, it plays an important role in improving and developing the rural cooperative medical treatment system. In Mao Zedong's "Instructions of June 26"made the whole country value the rural medical health work, and it made the focus of medical health work be shifted to rural area. Mao Zedong's instructions of "Paradise Commune" cooperative medical treatment reflected the ideal society in his heart. It was the interaction of mass media and political campaign that made the cooperative medical system spread in rural areas. Finally, the sector introduced the management and features of the cooperative medical system.Chapter 4 continues to describe barefoot doctor of the traditional rural cooperative medical treatment system. The chapter analyses the developmental background of the barefoot doctors and elaborates the evolutional history of the barefoot doctor. Then it discusses the ` salaries, the doctor-patient relationship and its reasons of the barefoot doctors under the cooperative medical system. Finally, the article analyses the historical role of the barefoot doctors and the cooperative medical system deeply.Chapter 5 is about the decline of the traditional rural cooperative medical system in. This chapter expounds the enervation of the traditional rural cooperative medical system and disappearance of barefoot doctors, and it analyses the negative impact of the decline of the cooperative medical system. Lastly, the article discusses the reasons of the decline of the system.In the last part of article, it compares the traditional rural cooperative medical system with the new cooperative medical treatment system. On summarizing the historical experience of the traditional rural cooperative medical care system, the article further sums up some current problems that should be concerned in the development of the new cooperative medical treatment system.