Study On Medical Status Of Henan People In Republic Of China

The medical status of the masses is a significant part of livelihood issue,and political implications were given to it in modern times of China.The Republican Period constitutes an important phase in China's medical and public health system.Under the framework of "New Deal" by the late Qing dynasty,the preliminary health administrative system on central governmental level was set up by the Northern Warlord Government;the medical and health system from the central to the local governments was constructed and the so called national health system was carried out once.However,the practical operations and the effects needs further research to investigate whether the medical problems have been relieved.Under the guidance of dialectical materialism and historical materialism,by viewing history in the bottom-up way mainly,the operations of the medical organizations in inland and populous Henan province and the situation of the livelihood and medical treatment of the people is investigated to study their real medical situation during the reform process of medical and health changes and to reveal their dilemma in the changing process.The paper consists of six parts.It first investigates the livelihood status of the people in Henan province in the Republic period from their earnings,natural calamities and life difficulties.Meanwhile,it illustrates the sources of traditional Chinese doctors and the multirelation of interdependence and competition between doctors and patients,doctors and drug shops.With traditional Chinese cultural characteristics taken into consideration,the success and failure of traditional Chinese medicine is analyzed in the prevention and treatment of the infectious diseases under the administrative changes in medical management.Then,under the background of social transformation,the spread and development of Western medicine are analyzed which is brought about with the missionary activities in Henan region;the missionary hospitals trained and gathered the the first batch of western medicine doctors.With the occurrence and development of the Western medicine hospitals,the difficulties in treatment are alleviated to some extent.Furthermore,the attempts to construct the administrative systems at central and local levels are retrospected in chronological order and the problems therein are examined to find out the structural imbalance in health system caused by being blind toward the real situation of the country.In addition,according to local documents and materials,the establishment and operation are explored yet to find the disordered and problematic operation of the public hospitals and the disequilibrium of the private hospitals and clinics.The causes are discussed later on.Finally,the paper studies the choices the masses have to make when face with different medical organizations such as missionary hospitals,traditional Chinese medicine clinic and drug shops,private and public Western medicine hospitals and clinics.The sadness and helplessness of the people in medical treatment can be deeply felt.In a word,the system had no obvious effectiveness,and the possibility and accessibility of the medical treatment of the masses had not really improved when they masses faced different medical organizations:although the Republic government attempted to establish the modern medical system both at local and central levels by imitating that of the European countries,the America or Japan,it had not taken the real livelihood of the masses and their possibility of medical treatment into account;in practice,the system was lack of economic support,medical personnel and proper management,and it blocked the development of traditional Chinese medicine;the situation was worsened by the turbulence and unsafety.