A doctor sees a young patient in a clinic in Chiping county in Liaocheng city, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/IC]

A NEW-BORN BABY IN Meigu county in Sichuan province, Southwest China, who developed breathing difficulties, was rushed to the hospital where the mother had given birth. However, the hospital can't afford a medical ventilator, so the baby had to be taken to another hospital in a nearby city, which, although it too could not afford a ventilator, had made a breathing machine of its own. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

This appears to be a loving story, as the baby survived, but people may still find bitterness in it. Had there been no bold proposal to make their own ventilator, the baby would possibly not have survived.

This time, their self-made ventilator saved the life of a baby, what about next time? It seems an effective ventilator can be made by doctors, what about other medical devices? Children are so vulnerable that all their hope is placed upon the hospital equipment in an emergency. But without even the minimum basic health facilities how can hospitals shoulder this heavy responsibility?

The self-made ventilator is also a heart-warming story about doctors striving to fulfill their responsibilities, but fundamentally it is about the shortage of facilities in primary healthcare institutions due to a lack of funding. China is implementing healthcare reforms, it is common sense that the bottom line for these reforms should be the allocation of medical resources and management of funds.