Health Provision Flashcards
1
Q
HEALTH PROVISION: OVERVIEW
- Public health provision in China: Extremely rudimentary.
- 19th century: Christian missionaries & charities brought western medicine to China.
- 1920s & 30s: More doctors trained & hospitals opened.
A
HOWEVER:
- Many still relied on traditional Chinese medical techniques e.g. herbalism.
- Rural China: practically no healthcare
- Public health spending was never a priority for the regime -> never rose above 2.6% of state budget up till 1956.
2
Q
HOW EFFECTIVE WAS THE HEALTH POLICY?
SUCCESS: PATRIOTIC HEALTH CAMPAIGNS
- CCP decided prevention of disease > expensive cures.
- PHC: Sent cadres & party workers into rural areas to educate illiterate peasants on sanitation, hygiene etc.
- Diseases such as smallpox, typhoid fever, cholera, plague & leprosy: practically eliminated.
- Parasitic diseases & tuberculosis: greatly reduced.
- Terror campaigns vs criminal gangs greatly lowered no. of drug addicts.
A
GLF: SUCCESSES & FAILURES FOR HEALTH
SUCCESSES:
- Communes established medical clinics.
- State investment built 800> Western-style hospitals.
- 1949-57: Life expectancy ^ from 36 to 57 yrs/o.
- 1949-65: No. of trained doctors ^ from 40-150k.
FAILURES:
- 30-45m people died during GLF.
- Women not cared for in childbirth etc: suffered particularly.
- Higher trained doctors in urban areas: countryside suffered.
- Creches on communes: In awful condition for children even before GLF.
3
Q
C.R’S EFFECT ON HEALTHCARE:
SUCCESSES:
- Barefoot doctors provided higher lvl of healthcare than peasants had ever experienced.
- By 1978: Over 1m new doctors trained.
FAILURES:
- Medical professional labelled as bourgeois: doctors denounced during Antis campaigns, struggle meetings etc.
- Zhisui Li: Mao’s personal physician: recalls need to hide family background in order to survive C.R.
- Bare-foot doctors only minimally trained.
A
BAREFOOT DOCTORS:
- Mao introduced this as solution to disruption of medical care during C.R.
- Clear inequality in healthcare btwn rural & urban China.
- Cities: fully-trained doctors provided first line of care - countryside: paramedics.
HOW IT WORKED:
- Young people sent to countryside to train as doctors.
- Trained intensively for only 6 months, therefore could only provide rudimentary healthcare.
- Village clinic: Only had small supplies of medicine & equipment.
- ‘Barefoot doctors manual’ was a summary of symptoms and no theory according to Jung Chang, author of ‘Wild Swans.’
IMPACT OF THESE DOCTORS:
- Only basic training: but provided more healthcare than peasants had ever experienced.
- Rudimentary training: better than no training.
- 1973: ^ 1m new doctors trained.
4
Q
EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE PROVISION: CONCLUSION
A
- Mao sought to initiate profound transformation in attitudes & access to education and health.
- Policies influenced minds and bodies of Chinese people.
- However: healthcare remained low priority in budget.
- Barefoot doctors: Can be seen as practical solution to shortage of doctors, or as propaganda stopgap to win support w/o diverting funds from economy & industry.
- GLF & CR: Greatly disrupted healthcare progress.
- Access to education ^ but lines between indoctrination and education: blurred.
- This bolstered regime’s hold on power.
- Failed to open minds and encourage independent thought, did not prepare students to apply technical knowledge or innovative thinking.
- These were urgently required to provide genuine and lasting benefits to lives of majority of Chinese ppl: not provided.
WOMEN’S FEDERATION
- Worked to improve infant care and midwifery.
- Postpartum care rudimentary.
- Advocated new practices based on scientific methods, e.g. hand-washing, sterilising equipment etc.
- Propaganda damned midwives as inadequate: but knew they had years of valuable experience and could help if taught new techniques.
- Result: Fertility rose and infant mortality declined.