Health Provision

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE PROVISION: CONCLUSION

Answer 4

• 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.