A doctor who travels through two eras

The real data shows that there are 64 administrative villages and about 330 million natural villages nationwide, a number that is staggering.

Given that it's impossible to build even one new infectious disease hospital in a region, the idea of ​​building millions of new village clinics across the country all at once is truly daunting.

It's perfectly normal for Minister Li to have reservations; he's just afraid someone might try to make unrealistic claims.

Lin Sanqi quickly waved his hand and explained further:

"We don't need to build special clinics. The places for treating illnesses can be diverse and are not limited to formal places such as hospitals."

For example, a barefoot doctor could set up a clinic in his private home, or he could simply find an ancestral hall, temple, or an uninhabited house; the requirements were not high.

Minister Li nodded slightly and then asked:
"How are patient treatment costs calculated? Or how is the barefoot doctor's income handled? If you want local finances to cover the costs, I'm afraid your rural doctor program still won't be able to be promoted."

Lin Sanqi replied without hesitation:

"There must be a fee for seeing a doctor. For example, the registration fee at a hospital is between 2 and 5 cents, but the barefoot doctor only charges 5 cents for registration. The registration fee collected belongs to the barefoot doctor personally."

In addition, a 15% markup on medicines was allowed, and this portion of the profit was also given to barefoot doctors.

To prevent local governments from not cooperating, the policy was to ensure that barefoot doctors did not have to pay any money; their income was entirely earned by themselves.

Earning more or less depends on one's ability, which can actually improve the barefoot doctors' work enthusiasm and service attitude.

In addition, conditions vary from region to region, so policies can be more flexible.

For example, in some wealthier areas with more patients, barefoot doctors could take a break from their jobs and become full-time doctors.

However, in some poor areas, or where there are few villagers, it's difficult to make a living by being a doctor. In such cases, barefoot doctors can work part-time, earning work points by participating in village labor, essentially becoming part-time farmers and part-time doctors, thus having two sources of income.

Lin Sanqi's approach is based on the premise of combining the national conditions with the rural medical policies of two different regions.

For example, before the reform and opening up, rural areas implemented rural medical cooperatives. Members paid a certain amount of money each year, so apart from the registration fee, medicines were almost free.

The benefit of this approach is that it greatly reduces the burden on farmers, encouraging them to go to the clinic for treatment when they are sick, rather than treating minor illnesses and delaying treatment for serious ones.

However, this policy has a major drawback: in order to save costs, the drugs provided are the worst and cheapest, with questionable efficacy.

After the reform and opening up, rural medical cooperatives were abolished, and the rural medical market entered a stage of unregulated and free development.

Township health centers and village clinics can freely purchase medicines from pharmaceutical companies and then resell them to patients at any price they want. How much they earn depends on the doctor's skill.

One advantage of this policy is that as long as you have money, you can get any kind of good medicine you want.

At the same time, there was no financial burden, because the health centers and barefoot doctors were self-sufficient and operated independently, without needing funding from higher authorities.

However, this policy also has a major drawback.

That is, rural doctors will stop at nothing to make money, and drug abuse is rampant. Farmers have nowhere to get their medical expenses reimbursed, which makes the problems of difficulty and high cost of medical treatment quite prominent.

Lin Sanqi's solution was to merge the two rural medical policies and find a compromise.

It's not perfect, but it's sufficient for the short term.

The tragedy of the little boy in Xiyang Village, Lintong County, who almost died from a minor abrasion due to a skin infection, must never happen again.

Minister Li pondered for a long time and increasingly felt that Lin Sanqi's barefoot doctor plan was feasible.

Women are more observant, so the old lady asked again:

"How do barefoot doctors get their medicine? Transportation is very difficult nowadays. It can take several days for a barefoot doctor in a remote area to get into the city. How can they get their medicine?"

Lin Sanqi thought for a moment, and then, drawing on his experience from decades later, replied: "That's easy to do. We need to change the way supply and marketing cooperatives purchase and sell medicines. Supply and marketing cooperatives are too busy. When I was a purchasing agent at the Capital Central Hospital, I had to go to other places to purchase medicines myself."

It's because the supply and marketing cooperatives are too busy. Minister Li, you can do the math: all hospitals across the country have to purchase their own medicines. How much manpower and resources is wasted in that?
Therefore, I suggest that we establish a pharmaceutical company in each county to specialize in drug production, procurement, and sales, leaving professional matters to professionals.

The barefoot doctors could purchase the medicines they needed from pharmaceutical companies on a cash-on-delivery basis. The barefoot doctors themselves determined what medicine to use and in what quantities.

Minister Li suddenly seemed somewhat troubled:
"The model you proposed for establishing a pharmaceutical company is good, but there's another problem: we don't have that many pharmaceutical factories in China right now. Can your Bao'an County Pharmaceutical Factory supply medicines to millions of villages across the country?"

Lin Sanqi almost vomited blood upon hearing this.

It was incredibly difficult to accomplish anything in the 1960s; we had nothing and were dirt poor.

When you make a new suggestion, countless difficulties will arise.

He is clearly a doctor, and in addition to being able to treat patients, he also has to be able to make pharmaceuticals and solve the funding problems of the national health system. Now he even has to run his own pharmaceutical factory.

"Minister Li, we have so many cadres and staff in our health system, you can't just keep targeting me. How can I, as one person, solve the pharmaceutical factory's problems? What use are you health leaders then?"

The old lady felt a little embarrassed after Lin Sanqi complained to her.

"Oh dear, Comrade Sanqi, don't be angry. We're discussing something right now. It all boils down to the same old problem: a lack of funds."

"We currently have 50 new pharmaceutical factory construction plans, but due to the natural disasters of the past three years, the government has no spare funds to invest in them, and the projects have been shelved..."

Lin Sanqi was both amused and exasperated:
“I understand, I understand. Here’s what we’ll do: send a copy of the plans for these 50 pharmaceutical factories to Bao’an County. If we think it’s feasible, Bao’an County will cover the cost.”

The old lady was delighted upon hearing this:
"Good, good, good! Bao'an County is truly our lucky charm, haha. One last question: do you have training materials for barefoot doctors? We can't just use textbooks from colleges and universities, can we?"

Upon hearing this, an excited expression suddenly appeared on Lin Sanqi's face.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a notebook about the size of a Xinhua dictionary:
"Ta-da! Minister Li, here you go, this is the 'Barefoot Doctor's Handbook' compiled by our Bao'an County."

The content ranges from common coughs, vomiting, and fevers to complex cardiovascular diseases and cancer;

From disease prevention knowledge such as mosquito and fly control to protection against nuclear and biological weapons; from acupuncture and herbal medicine to commonly used Western medicines, it covers everything.

All content is based on the principles of clarity, simplicity, ease of use, and effectiveness. To put it another way, even an ordinary person, as long as they have this manual, can consult books and treat their own ailments.

The old lady quickly took the thick booklet, looked at the red cover, and hurriedly opened it.

"Wow, Bao'an County is really amazing! They actually published a book!"

Lin Sanqi was not the original author at all, but a shameful plagiarist.

The real "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" was published by the People's Medical Publishing House in June 1970. It is difficult to count how many copies were printed in total, but the People's Medical Publishing House edition alone printed 118 million copies.

It has also been translated into more than 50 languages ​​and exported to many developing countries, and is regarded by the United Nations as a model of medical care.

Of course, Lin Sanqi revised the old "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" and added introductions to antibiotics, antipyretics, analgesics, stomach medicines, and so on.

The old "Barefoot Doctor's Handbook" had a slogan: "Treatment relies on silver needles, and medicine is found in the mountains."

This was because medicines were scarce back then, so they had to rely on traditional Chinese medicine and herbal remedies, but these were very difficult to learn, which led to frequent medical accidents in rural areas.

After Lin Sanqi's improvements, a total of 100 million copies were printed in another time and space, in preparation for making a big splash in this era.

As the old lady flipped through the pages, she couldn't help but nod repeatedly. Although she wasn't a medical professional, she had served as a minister for ten years, so she still had the insight to back it up.

"Great, that's wonderful." (End of Chapter)