Beijing public health system's emergency response too slow, say officials
Beijing's public health system is still not good enough to respond quickly to emergencies, including another potential outbreak of Sars, senior city government officials said.
Vice-Mayor Niu Youcheng listed five areas of concern at a municipal health-care conference, according to media reports.
Mr Niu said the public health system was characterised by an imbalanced investment in the health system between urban and rural areas; a weak response system to counter outbreaks of disease; a low standard of infrastructure in public health; a lack of supervision in law enforcement; and the poor performance of rural health services.
These views were presented by Mr Niu at a meeting attended by many high-ranking city officials where measures intended to build a stronger public health system by 2005 were discussed.
Mr Niu's comments were welcomed by the World Health Organisation's China representative Henk Bekedam as an indication of the government's continued openness on the Sars issue. But he said he could not comment on the city's readiness as the global health body had yet to conduct an independent study.
At the meeting, Mr Niu outlined a draft plan to improve the city's health services in the long term. It includes a commitment to set up more emergency medical centres, to ensure ambulances could respond to emergency calls within six minutes.
That would be about half the current average response time. The plan also seeks to establish more clinics and to improve medical services in rural areas.
'It is very positive that the authorities are openly discussing their problems and trying to formulate a plan for the future,' said Mr Bekedam. 'But it's important to remember that it's much easier to identify problems than it is to solve them.'
Mr Niu's comments are not the first bout of self-criticism from senior government officials over the country's efforts to guard against a new Sars outbreak.
Last month, Vice-Premier Wu Yi accused local governments of being badly prepared. She said some areas had failed to comply with requirements laid down by the central government for formulating emergency plans, setting up information networks and improving the conditions of fever clinics.
A nationwide direct reporting system for Sars was set up at the start of the month. Under the system, more than 13,000 medical institutions and more than 10,000 hospitals at village level can make reports to the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention through the internet.
The Ministry of Health has pledged to make public the extent of any future outbreak as soon as possible.
