Ms. Tang living in Yingshui Avenue of NankaiDistrict only needs to walk ten minutes to theneighboring community healthcare servicecenter to get her medication, and the fees isonly less than half of that of major hospitals.The service is not only easily accessible, butalso more affordable.

As an important component of the local medicalsystem reform, it is hoped that the communityhealthcare service can be popularized sothat local residents would have convenient andaffordable service. The program in Tianjin hasbeen highly appreciated by Ministry of Healthof the People’s Republic of China.

Community healthcare service is communitybased,and public-oriented. It is composed ofdisease-prevention, health care, medical care,health education and family planning services.

At present, there are altogether 75 communityhealthcare service centers in urban areas ofTianjin, and 499 community healthcare servicestations subordinating the centers. The residentscan access one of them on foot in lessthan 15 minutes. There are service centers inevery street, service stations in every neighborhoodcommittee and doctors serving in everycommunity. So far, six urban districts and threeBinhai districts are enjoying the convenientservices. Rural areas are to have the same servicein due time.

Since 2008, the fund for the urban communitypublic healthcare service has increasedfrom RMB 50,000 yuan to not less than RMB100,000 yuan for every 10,000 people servedand the district-level government is responsiblefor most of the fund. Most of the communityhealthcare service institutions of Tianjin urbandistricts offer residents 18 public healthcareservices free of charge. Among those districts,Heping and Tanggu Districts raised the fundfor the urban community public healthcare serviceto the amount of RMB 300,000 to 350,000yuan per 10,000 people. They also enrichedthe content of free services. From this year on,Heping District even funds and provides freemedical examinations for more than 70,000senior citizens over 60 every three years.

In 2008, the Tianjin Municipal Government beganto practice service account management. Fundsallocated for the municipal and district levels areboth deposited in a special account of the municipalgovernment to ensure that the communityhealthcare service is properly funded.“Meanwhile, we have established a system tocollect, allocate and monitor community publichealthcare funds, and to assess the efficiency ofthe funds, so that we can maintain effective planningand monitoring,” says Cheng Jinxin, Head ofthe Municipal Bureau of Public Health Care.

It is just the beginning. The Tianjin MunicipalGovernment will resource more funds to improvecommunity healthcare service facilities:future premises for the service will be offeredby the government free of charge; the presentrented premises will be either bought or paidin installment by the authority; other types ofrents will be refunded by the local government.

Local Department of Social Security is orientingresidents to treat minor diseases and seekhealthcare and rehabilitation services withinthe community. It has brought all qualifiedcommunity healthcare service institutions intodesignated medical insurance managementand has been connected to the networks ofmedical insurance service organizations andhospitals. Through this approach, the insuredpatients are able to access their funds directlywithin their community. A number of frequently-occurring diseases and diagnosed chronicdiseases can be treated inside the community.Apart from this, “family sickbed” provided bycommunity healthcare service institutions islisted as one of the refund items.