A doctor who travels through two eras

After briefly flipping through it, Minister Li slapped the table and exclaimed in admiration:

"Good, good, Comrade Sanqi, you've done another great deed! With this 'Barefoot Doctor's Handbook' in hand, even this old lady can become a doctor, haha."

Lin Sanqi finally felt relieved, as the old lady clearly recognized the importance and ease of learning of the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual".

But Lin Sanqi had other concerns, so he reminded her:

"Minister Li, I think the success of the barefoot doctor program depends on you now."

First, you need to report to your superiors and tell them that hospitals have been widely established in the city, and that every county in Bao'an has a hospital. In addition, Bao'an County has promoted the establishment of an infectious disease hospital in the city.

What's lacking now is in rural areas. After all, there are more farmers than workers in our country, and how to solve the problem of farmers' access to medical care is also something we should focus on.

Currently, rural healthcare is virtually nonexistent. Farmers have to travel to cities for medical treatment, which is inconvenient and expensive. Farmers often either delay seeking treatment or die from illness; we must change this situation.

Therefore, we need to train a large number of doctors that rural areas can afford, so that farmers can also afford medical treatment. At least for minor illnesses, they can see a doctor and get medicine, so that minor illnesses don't turn into major illnesses and it's too late.

Therefore, you must get personal instructions from higher authorities to promote the barefoot doctor program as a key initiative this year; only then will local authorities truly take it seriously.

Upon hearing this, Minister Li hugged the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" to his chest and sighed deeply.
"I am ashamed. After serving as minister for so many years, there are still many shortcomings in my work. I have indeed neglected the vast rural areas."

However, we can't completely blame the old lady. After all, the country was newly established and everything needed to be rebuilt. It was really too difficult. It was already quite an achievement that she could manage to run the city hospital well.

"Minister Li, don't blame yourself anymore. Let bygones be bygones. What matters is the future. We always have to look forward. It's never too late to change things now."

After the New Year, you should immediately organize each county in every province across the country to send a doctor, teacher, or even a government official if necessary, to Bao'an County. We will be responsible for training the instructors.

Then, these teachers will return and, based on the "Barefoot Doctor's Handbook," conduct comprehensive training for rural youth throughout the county, aiming to train a preliminary qualified barefoot doctor within two months.

After listening, Minister Li suddenly stood up and asked:
"Comrade Sanqi, do you have any written documents regarding the implementation of the nationwide training program for rural doctors, oh, I mean the barefoot doctor program you mentioned?"

Lin Sanqi took out a document bag from his backpack. These days, you have to ask for everything and report everything, so of course he brought written materials with him.

“Okay, as long as we have the materials, that’s good. You come with me now to report to Leader Jing. We’ll raise our own funds, run our own hospital, open our own pharmaceutical factory, and train our own instructors. Leader Jing will definitely approve it on the spot.”

Lin Sanqi knew immediately that the ministry's approval alone wouldn't be enough, so he stood up:
"Let's go, let's go report now."

The next day, Lin Sanqi had a new position: in charge of rural medical and health work nationwide, and in charge of the Bao'an County Pharmaceutical Industrial Park. He was just waiting to go through the formalities after the New Year.

Lin Sanqi felt no joy, but rather a mixture of amusement and exasperation, because his job duties were too chaotic and complicated, with a whole host of titles.

Being a leader in the 1960s was an extremely heavy responsibility, especially in that era of poverty and backwardness.

In the words of our leader, ten thousand years is too long; we should seize every minute.

The Ministry of Health held an emergency closed-door meeting.

Minister Li sat in the head seat, with the other 13 vice ministers sitting on either side, and the heads of various departments and bureaus at the very back.

Lin Sanqi sat at the very end, since his position was more temporary and he would definitely have to return it to the ministry later.

Minister Li glanced at Lin Sanqi before speaking:

"Today we have a new colleague, Comrade Lin Sanqi. Let's welcome him."

The meeting room erupted in enthusiastic applause, and Lin Sanqi stood up and bowed to everyone.

"I don't need to introduce Comrade Lin Sanqi. As a timely help to our health system, he is very famous. Who in the world doesn't know him?" Everyone in the conference room chuckled.

Of course, some people were also sour, because a few years ago Lin Sanqi was their subordinate, but now he has suddenly become their superior.

"I also have some good news to share. Comrade Lin Sanqi has brought a total of 2 million US dollars in funding to our health system this time. Cough cough, originally it was 5 million, but 3 million was requisitioned by the higher authorities."

Even $2 million is enough for our healthcare system to undertake some major systemic operations. Things that were previously impossible due to lack of funds can now be done. The days of everyone reading a newspaper and drinking tea are coming to an end.

The pleasant atmosphere was suddenly shattered by Minister Li, instantly turning into a menacing atmosphere.

The people in the meeting, who had been putting on an act, all sat up straight and their hearts raced after hearing this.

Minister Li glanced around at everyone before coldly speaking:

"The higher-ups are very dissatisfied with the work of our Ministry of Health. For this reason, I have already submitted a self-criticism to the higher-ups and promised to start a work rectification next year. Anyone who continues to slack off or fail to perform their duties will be punished when the higher-ups' knife comes down. Don't say you weren't warned."

Lin Sanqi sat in his seat, looking around, enjoying watching others sweat profusely.

He was present when his superiors criticized him. Fortunately, Minister Li was appreciated by his superiors; otherwise, he would probably have been terrified on the spot.

Minister Li was also seething with anger. She thought to herself, "You all don't listen to me usually, but now that I have instructions from higher up, let's see who dares to disobey."

Minister Li took a sip of water and continued:
"Originally, this is the year-end summary meeting, and we should be talking about happy things. But looking back on the past year, I really can't think of any achievements that are worth mentioning."

Comrade Lin Sanqi told me yesterday, "Let bygones be bygones; what matters is the future." I thought about it and he was right. We need to cheer up, comrades. So, I'd like to make some arrangements for next year's work.

The higher authorities have preliminarily approved my work report on "Establishing a National Rural Doctor System," and instructed that starting next year, every village in every rural area should establish a "part-time farmer, part-time doctor" rural doctor.

Comrade Lin Sanqi called them "barefoot doctors," which I think is a very apt description. When they're barefoot in the fields, they're farmers; when they're not, they're doctors.

Upon hearing this, Vice Minister Zhang immediately spoke up:

"Minister Li, isn't this a bit too hasty? We're still promoting the plan to build a hospital in every county, and you're going to demand that every village have a doctor right away. This is a major issue that involves millions of rural residents."

Where did these millions of village doctors come from? Where will the funding for building millions of new village clinics come from? How will the drug supply be solved? Right now we have nothing, and we're supposed to expand this next year, but we simply can't finish it.

Minister Li's decisive action this time caught everyone off guard. She reported directly to her superiors without going through a collective discussion because she knew the resistance would be too great.

At this moment, she tapped the table and said:
"There are difficulties, of course there are great difficulties, but just because there are difficulties, does that mean we should ignore them?"

"..."

"..."

Everyone in the conference room remained silent, but they were certainly unconvinced.

At this moment, Vice Minister Wei spoke up to smooth things over:
"Don't worry about the funding. Comrade Lin Sanqi has already taken care of most of it for us. Don't we still have 2 million US dollars on hand?"

In addition, the training of barefoot doctors was also handled by Bao'an County, which solved another big problem for us.

Our task is simple: to guide the establishment of village clinics in rural areas across the country. This is an order from higher authorities, and we cannot negotiate; everyone must take on this responsibility.

At this point, Vice Minister Zhang also asked a question:
"Minister Li, what exactly do you want us to do? You need to give us a plan, right?" (End of Chapter)