The reform aims to provide "safe, effective, convenient and affordable" health services for every one of the country's 1.3 billion people, the State Council, or Cabinet, said.  In a policy document published Monday (Mar 6), it acknowledged "pressing problems that have caused strong complaints from the public."

The three-year implementation plan aims to provide basic medical insurance to 90 percent of the population by 2011, Xinhua reported.

The government will also support the construction of 2,000 hospitals at the county level to guarantee that each county has a hospital that meets the national standard, the three-year plan (2009-2011) said, adding that more township hospitals and clinics will be built or expanded in 2009.

In addition, the country will build or renovate 3,700 community clinics and 11,000 health service centers in urban areas within three years. The central government will also build 2,400 such centers in underdeveloped urban areas during the same period.

That would mean  the availability  of at least one clinic in every village within three years to improve the health care at grassroots level, according to an implementation plan for medical reform released by the State Council on Tuesday (Mar 7). .

The development of health care services in rural areas has lagged behind because most medical facilities and doctors are in cities, the plan said.

Training of medical personnel is also part of the reform program. In the next three years, 1.37 million village doctors and 160,000 community doctors with undergo additional training.  Also, city-level hospitals, which usually have better expertise and equipment, will each be required to help three county-level hospitals to improve the skills of medics. This stint at the rural areas for at least one year will be required  before they can be promoted.

The rural dwellers have had no choice but to live  with the poorly-equipped rural clinics and  the  shortage of medical staff, which have restricted their access to  quality health care. Some are even impoverished because of the huge cost of medical treatment and the transportation fees they have to pay traveling from their homes to cities, according to the plan.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told reporters in Beijing that  the general principles contained in China's new reform "are in line with what the World Health Organization (WHO) is promoting. For  example, the principle of equity, the principle of having the poor (covered by) health policies."