Implementation of the national health policy in PRC (1981–2017)

Abstract

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China’s national health and sanitation industry has achieved remarkable achievements. Before the liberation, the Chinese people suffered from hunger, famine and infectious diseases. The average life expectancy was only 35 years old. In the early days of the founding of New China, under the condition that the national strength was extremely weak and there was a serious shortage of medical treatment and medicine, the state adopted a «prevention-based» medical and health strategy to mobilize social resources and effectively curb prevention measures such as changing people’s bad habits and vaccination. The serious threat to the spread of human’s infectious diseases in China has greatly improved the people’s health. Since the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of the economy, people’s material living standards have become increasingly rich, but new challenges have been generated in the health field. Faced with new challenges in the health field, the Chinese medical community conducted a comprehensive analysis and discussion. Based on the summary of relevant experiences of the World Health Organization (WHO), combined with China’s national conditions, it put forward countermeasures for the health of the whole people and provided suggestions for deepening the reform of China’s medical and health system.