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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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