A doctor who travels through two eras

Minister Li, unaware of Lin Sanqi's ulterior motives, jumped up excitedly upon hearing that Lin Sanqi was going to hand over 20 billion US dollars, of which 10 billion US dollars were for medical and health care.

"How much? Five hundred million US dollars for our department? And we can use it as we please? Hahaha, we're rich!"

Lin Sanqi was so startled that she quickly reminded him, "Minister Li, please keep your voice down. This is too blatant."

The old lady waved her hand dismissively and said:

"This matter doesn't need to be kept secret. On the contrary, we will publicize it extensively, publicizing Comrade Lin Sanqi's advanced deeds and the greatness of Bao'an County."

Lin Sanqi quickly waved his hand:
“Minister Li, have you forgotten that the higher authorities have adopted a ‘three no’ policy toward Bao’an County: no support, no opposition, and no publicity? We need to develop in a low-key manner to avoid controversy.”

Minister Li looked at Lin Sanqi and said regretfully:
“You’ve made such a significant contribution to Bao’an County. If it’s not publicized and remains unknown to the world, wouldn’t that be a great disservice to you…”

Lin Sanqi thought to himself, "I have $20 billion in a Swiss bank account, and you call this a grievance?"

When you confiscate all the pharmaceutical factory's assets in a few years and replace him as the top official of Bao'an County, forcing him to the point where he can't even go home, that will be the real injustice.

“There’s nothing to feel wronged about. We’re just serving the people. The country is facing such difficulties right now, and we hope that the money from Bao’an County can help alleviate the country’s financial difficulties.”

While two billion dollars is a lot, it is indeed a drop in the ocean for a country.

Minister Li calmed himself down and then asked:
"And what's the second piece of good news?"

Lin Sanqi took out 5 boxes of medicine from his backpack:
"Minister Li, look, these three drugs are our latest oral antibiotics. Their efficacy far surpasses that of penicillin. I'll give you a batch, and you can find a hospital to try them out."

The other one is a fever reducer and pain reliever, and the other is a stomach medicine.

Oh, by the way, speaking of stomach medicine, you should immediately send a batch to Lankao in southern Netherlands and give it to a clerk named Jiao Yulu.

The old lady nodded, then said excitedly:
"Are these three antibiotics really more effective than penicillin? They must be very expensive, right? Is it possible to promote them on a large scale?"

Minister Li couldn't help but be excited. It was like in 2016 when someone said he had invented a drug that could cure cancer; I believe everyone would be thrilled.

Lin Sanqi shook his head and rejected the idea:

“Minister Li, this medicine is quite expensive. We have already tried selling it in Hong Kong. Just one box of this medicine costs almost a month’s wages for a worker, which is roughly equivalent to RMB 20 to 50.”

Even so, in Hong Kong, the supply is completely insufficient to meet the demand.

However, having learned from the experience with anti-tuberculosis drugs, I decided to prioritize domestic sales and profit over foreign trade. Instead, I focused on promoting these antibiotics, including fever reducers and stomach medications, within China, allowing Chinese people to use them first.

Minister Li looked at the few medicines in his hand, troubled:

"The medicine is good, but it's too expensive. One box costs a month's salary. I'm afraid not many people in China can afford it, especially farmers."

Lin Sanqi chuckled and explained:

"Don't worry, this is the price for overseas sales. If it were sold domestically, we would be prepared to sell this box of medicine at a loss. For example, this box of cephalosporin is only 1 yuan a box. Isn't that cheap?"

The average wage for workers is now around 37 yuan, which should be affordable.

It's tough for farmers, but if a box of antibiotics can save a life, one yuan isn't an astronomical figure for them.

Once our raw material factories are able to produce their own raw materials in the future, the price will be even lower.

I said before that the best model is to make money abroad and then use that money to subsidize the domestic market, thus creating a virtuous cycle.

The old lady nodded repeatedly:
"Your method is good, excellent! Currently, infectious diseases account for 79% of all clinical diseases."

"If we have medication to control the infection, we can save many more lives. Comrade Sanqi, what you've done is truly meritorious." Lin Sanqi reminded him:

“Minister Li, having medicine alone is not enough. We lack hospitals and doctors. If this problem is not solved, it will be useless no matter how much medicine Bao’an County produces.”

The old lady clicked her tongue, then said somewhat dejectedly:
“Training a qualified clinician, even with the lowest level of education (secondary vocational school graduate), takes at least three years. In addition, building a new hospital is also a time-consuming and labor-intensive process.”

As far as I know, the infectious disease hospital plan you launched in some provinces and cities a few months ago is progressing slowly in other areas, except for Xingtai and Tangshan where hospitals are being built rapidly according to plan.

"I'm really angry about this. They used to say our ministry wouldn't give us the money, and the local government didn't have the funds to build a new hospital. Now that the money's been given, they're still dragging their feet. They really don't care about healthcare at all."

There are approximately 3000 county-level administrative units across the country. As of 1964, the country had still not achieved its goal of having a hospital in every county.

Lin Sanqi's previous goal was to have an infectious disease hospital in every region (prefecture-level city), but even that plan was not completed.

It is evident that by the early 1960s, the work style of cadres had begun to slacken, and a few years later, they all became like quails, trembling with fear, making it even more impossible to accelerate the construction of the hospital.

Lin Sanqi snorted lightly, clearly annoyed:
"What else could it be? It's because the money is in the hands of Bao'an County, and we in Bao'an County don't just give money away casually."

To prevent project funds from being misappropriated, Bao'an County strictly requires that funds be used for their designated purpose and that payments be made according to the progress of the project.

Smarter officials knew that the hospital was being built for the local area, so they didn't have to pay for it themselves. Once it was completed, the local people would benefit, so they rushed to build the hospital.

Unwise local officials felt that the money shouldn't be used to build staff dormitories, provide welfare for employees of other units, or construct office buildings, so their enthusiasm waned.

The old lady also sighed:
"It's because our health department is a vulnerable department. Even though our ministry has repeatedly emphasized this, there's nothing we can do."

Lin Sanqi seized the opportunity and said:
"Minister Li, so this time I'm going to change my approach, learn from the great man, and decide to use the strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside."

"First, I want to address the common illnesses of ordinary people at the grassroots level. I plan to launch a nationwide training program for village doctors."

Minister Li knew that Lin Sanqi was full of clever ideas and had money, so he was sure that the methods he came up with would be practical. Therefore, he became very interested and asked:

"Tell me, what are your plans? How do you expect our department to cooperate?"

"Minister Li, this is what I think."

First, there's the issue of doctor sourcing. As you just mentioned, it takes at least three years to train a doctor, which is too long. We can't afford to wait that long, and the number of graduates is far from enough to meet the needs of the entire country.

My plan is that we can select an educated young person from each village to serve as a barefoot doctor.

This educated young person could be from the village or a sent-down youth. A high school diploma is acceptable, but lowering the bar slightly, even elementary school level of literacy would suffice. Alternatively, someone from a private school would also be fine; as long as they can read, that's enough.

Then we gathered these young farmers together for a two-month off-the-job training program.

There's no need to teach them any advanced medical knowledge, such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc. Just cancel them all.

Instead, the focus was on the disease itself. The goal was simply to teach these barefoot doctors how to identify diseases, how to treat them, and how to recognize Chinese herbal medicines, etc., which was straightforward and easy to understand.

If such a system of one barefoot doctor per village were implemented nationwide, it could immediately solve the embarrassing situation where most ordinary people have nowhere to seek medical treatment.

If villagers can get most minor illnesses treated at village clinics, they won't have to wait until they develop serious conditions and have to travel to big cities. This way, the villagers' health problems can be effectively addressed.

Minister Li's eyes lit up, and he asked eagerly:

"So what's the plan for these village clinics? How will the issue of hospital facilities be resolved? There are millions of villages across the country now; the cost of building clinics can't be solved with just a few hundred million yuan." (End of Chapter)