China to deepen reform with public hospitals -- China will carry forward public hospital reform to optimize medical care resources for public health, according to a decision at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on October 9. The reform on medical care pricing at public hospitals will continue toward dynamic price adjustment of medical services to make the knowledge expertise and efforts of medical workers better reflected in values. One or two cities in provincial regions where the comprehensive medical reform are piloted will be chosen for medical insurance payment reform, which covers all medical care institutions and services. The government will also designate over 100 disease categories for an insurance payment by-category reform.
Guideline speeds access to drugs -- Drugs developed in other countries are expected to be available for use on the Chinese mainland more quickly under a new guideline released by the central government. Authorities in China will now accept data collected from clinical trials conducted outside the mainland for applications to register drugs and medical equipment, according to the guideline on reforming approval procedures, which was released by the State Council on October 8. (Source: China Daily)
China expects stronger postal industry -- China will strengthen its fast-growing postal industry, an official said on the 48th World Post Day on October 9. The industry, mainly postal and courier services, has seen revenue increase 2.7 times since 2012, and the courier sector has been the world's largest in terms of delivery volume for three years, said Ma Junsheng, head of the State Post Bureau (SPB).However, the industry is still facing problems in many fields, including delivery channel safety, vehicles and employee interests, Ma said.
China to better protect cultural relics -- The State Council on September 20 issued a guideline to better protect cultural relics in China. As spiritual and cultural symbols of Chinese civilization, cultural relics serve as an embodiment of national memory, thus protecting cultural relics is protecting the county's history, according to the guideline. However, the illegal dealing, storing and auctioning of cultural relics has been frequent in recent years, which shows a lack of supervision and loopholes in protection work, according to the guideline.
China makes hefty investment in water conservancy projects -- China has made hefty investment in water conservancy projects over the past five years, benefiting hundreds of millions of people in poor regions, a senior official said on October 10. As part of the country's poverty-relief efforts, such investment from the central government reached a record high of 226.6 billion yuan (about 34.3 billion U.S. dollars) between 2012 and 2016, Zhou Xuewen, deputy minister of water resources, told a forum. The investment helped lift more than 300,000 rural people out of poverty, enabled 110 million rural residents to have safe drinking water, built water-saving irrigation systems on 34 million mu (about 2.3 million hectares) of farmland, and treated water and soil erosion on 41,000 square kilometers of land, Zhou said.
Use of AI to grow in nation's medical sector -- China will promote the application of artificial intelligence technologies in the healthcare sector to improve services for patients, especially at the grassroots level, according to the nation's top health authority. "Further improving the quality and efficiency of medical care is an important task for health authorities," said a statement released by the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
PPP rules tightened to reduce fiscal risk -- China will reinforce regulations to monitor public-private partnership (PPP) projects as part of its efforts to prevent illegal borrowing by local governments, said a senior official with the nation's top economic regulator."Strengthened supervision over local governments' financing for PPP projects, which started earlier this year, marks a new starting point (in PPP management)," said Han Zhifeng, deputy head of the fixed-asset investment department of the National Development and Reform Commission. (Source: China Daily)
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