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Concern over hospital funding
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-07 05:54
Doctor hopes for more gov't support
Yin Zuluan, a 34-year-old village doctor, was on the way to visit a sick new
mother who lives in a remote mountainous area as Premier Wen Jiabao presented
the government work report on Sunday morning.
It took her more than two hours to walk to the home of the woman, who gave
birth 10 days earlier, leaving no time for her to watch TV coverage of the
report.
So news of the premier's pledge to help doctors like her came as a welcome
surprise.
"I hope governments can give us more money to support our work," said Yin,
from Guangsong village of Longchuan County, Yunnan Province.
With a monthly salary of 120 yuan (US$14), she is in charge of providing
clinical medical treatment and care to at least 600 villagers.
Many villagers live in isolated areas, which means that she can sometimes
only treat one patient a day.
She can receive another 120 yuan (US$14) a month from a three-year State
project working with families of 32 HIV/AIDS sufferers from the village.
But it still means her total salary is only one-tenth that of a doctor
working in cities.
She can get some extra money from the sale of medicines to villagers.
However, many of her patients are so poor that they usually have to admit
they have no money to give her after being treated.
Her village, like hundreds of others in remote areas of Yunnan Province, is
seriously stricken by drug abuse and HIV/AIDS.
With little income, many villagers simply have to wait for death, Yin said.
She told China Daily she wanted the premier to help not only doctors, but the
villagers themselves.
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