China to further reform medical, healthcare systems, enhance public medical services: official

China will ensure and improve the people's wellbeing in the course of further deepening reform of the medicine and healthcare systems, said a senior official with the National Health Commission.

Ensuring the people's health should be a strategic priority, according to a resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in Beijing on July 15-18.

At an interview with China Central Television (CCTV), Lei Haichao, director of National Health Commission, emphasized that the primary task of deepening the reform of the medicine and healthcare systems is to anchor the goals of the Healthy China initiative by 2035. This involves establishing and improving the planning, investment, and governance policies and regulatory systems for prioritizing health development and promoting the integration of health into all policies.

By 2035, a medical and health service system that is in line with the efforts to basically realize socialist modernization and is complete, efficient, and resilient should be set up. Equal access, accessibility, and service capabilities will markedly strengthen, and the people's health will significantly improve, the initiative required.

"We are now facing the threat of both communicable and chronic non-communicable diseases, so we call for early diagnosis and treatment and seek to attract more social institutions and individuals to participate in patriotic health campaigns and health promotion," Lei said.

Nowadays, China has built the world's largest healthcare system. However, the unbalanced and inadequate development of the healthcare system still needs to be addressed through reforms.

China has a three-tier system to grade hospitals, with tertiary hospitals - which have the largest number of beds and provide comprehensive medical services - at the top of the system.

For the majority of people, public hospitals remain the first choice for medical treatment. The quality of service of public hospitals is directly related to the health of the people.

The resolution said that China will continue to expand the availability of quality medical resources, channel them toward the community level, and make sure they were better distributed among regions. The country will move faster to develop the tiered diagnosis and treatment system and propel the development of tightly knit medical consortia.

"It is necessary to further address some of the imbalances and inadequacies in health development, resolve the emerging needs and changes in medical treatment and health care, and better support the balanced development of health in the central and western regions. We are working to enhance the overall capacity of the healthcare system in a comprehensive manner. Our plan is to have higher-level healthcare institutions assist lower-level ones. Additionally, we are promoting the construction of healthcare groups and integrated healthcare systems to improve the continuity of medical services," Lei said.

China to further reform medical, healthcare systems, enhance public medical services: official

A high-level mediation team from the African Union (AU) Commission has been dispatched to Juba, capital of South Sudan, to try to ease the rising tensions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, and help resolve the current political crisis in the country.

Riek Machar and several senior officials have been detained since clashes erupted in January between the South Sudan People's Defense Forces and the opposition fighters.

Machar was accused of instigating violence in Nasir in the northern part of the country.

The mediation team says it plans to engage Machar, but that meeting is yet to take place.

The AU is urging South Sudanese political leaders to resolve the current disagreement through dialogue.

Machar heads the largest opposition group that has an armed wing in the country, known as SPLM/A-IO.

South Sudan's government says it's still investigating Machar for being allegedly involved in clashes between government troops and armed civilians affiliated to SPLM/A-IO in Nasir.

"The mandate of the RTGoNU (the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity) is simple; that we stop war, we form a revitalized government of national unity so that we return security, sustainable peace in the country," said Martin Elia Lomuro, South Sudan's Minister of Cabinet Affairs.

Meanwhile, Machar's party members are calling on president Kiir to order the release of their leader.

The group argues that the arrest of Machar means the 2018 peace deal which ended five years of violence in the country has partially collapsed.

The government reaffirms its commitment to the implementation of the 2018 peace deal.

It says Mr. Machar is in conflict with the law and that the implementation of the peace deal should not be used as cover to commit crime. However, until now, South Sudanese law enforcement agencies have not charged Machar with any offense in a court of law.

South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, signed a peace deal in 2018 that ended a civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar. Nearly 400,000 people died in the civil war.

Relations between Kiir and Machar, who have dominated South Sudan's politics for decades, remain strained. The clashes and latest political tensions between the two leaders have unsettled many citizens and the international community.

AU dispatches Panel of Wise to address ongoing instability in South Sudan