The Barefoot Doctor was born in the late 1960s. It is a milestone in China’s cooperative medical system and a health guardian for rural farmers in China. There are two reasons why it is called this way.
First of all, these The doctors were originally farmers. They were selected to study at higher-level medical departments for a certain period of time and then return to their hometowns to provide medical services to their fellow villagers. These people are not state cadres and do not receive state subsidies. They are ordinary farmers. The local government takes the lead to provide medical services to the villagers. Each household is organized as a village unit to form a cooperative medical society. These barefoot doctors sit in the cooperative medical system to serve farmers.
Secondly, they have to work in the fields during busy farming periods or in the morning and evening. Once someone is sick, they will be on call whether they are working in the fields or sleeping late at night.
Based on the above two points, from the private sector to the government, the experience of the medical cooperative has been People who engage in primary medical services after initial pre-job training are called barefoot doctors.
If you want to know more about barefoot doctors, you can read the following articles.
Cooperative Medical Care, Barefoot Doctor Management
〖After the founding of the People's Republic of China〗〖1969-1979〗〖Cooperative Medical Care〗〖Barefoot Doctor〗〖Management〗〖Rural〗
Shandong Province began to promote the development of cooperative medical care in 1969 and cultivate rural areas Non-working health personnel (barefoot doctors). At the beginning of the cooperative medical care in the province, it adhered to the principles of "three soils" (local medicine, local medicines, and local methods) and "four self" (self-growing,
self-picking, self-made, and self-growing medicinal materials). We must rely on ourselves to run hospitals and medicines. Cooperative medical funds mainly come from the public welfare funds of individual members and production teams and production brigades. Barefoot doctors are generally paid according to work points and participate in collective distribution at the end of the year. By 1971, there were more than 5,560 cooperative medical teams in the province and more than 41,000 barefoot doctors had been trained. In January 1972, the Health Bureau of the Provincial Revolutionary Committee held a cooperative medical experience exchange meeting in Anqiu County, calling for the basic implementation of team-run cooperative medical care in the province's production brigades that year, and also implemented it in cities, streets, and schools. Cooperative medical care.
By 1973, there were 36,332 brigades implementing cooperative medical care in the province, accounting for 44.9% of the total production brigades;
The team-based and two-level management cooperation between the community and the team was implemented There are 261 communes providing medical treatment, accounting for 13.2% of the rural people's communes.
Community teams that implement cooperative medical care have basically reached the point where they are not required to leave the team for minor injuries or illnesses.
Statistics at the end of March 1975 showed that the number of brigades implementing cooperative medical care in the province increased from 67.15% at the end of 1974 to 69.
6%; In communes, the number increased from 34.8% at the end of 1974 to 39.6%; the number of barefoot doctors in the province has grown to 158,168.
In 1977, the province began to rectify the cooperative medical system and establish and improve management systems for diagnosis, treatment, drugs, funds, etc.
At the end of 1978, there were 66,979 production brigades implementing cooperative medical care in rural areas of the province, accounting for 80.3% of the total number of production brigades; ***1302, accounting for 62.2% of the total people's communes.
There are 190,541 barefoot doctors in the province, with an average of 2.3 per brigade, of which 64,419 are female barefoot doctors.
In January 1979, the Provincial Health Bureau held three rural cooperative medical symposiums in Lijin County, Gaomi County and Xusi Commune of Changqing County to discuss the development of cooperative medical care. , The issue of consolidating the team of barefoot doctors was studied and deployed again.
〖After the founding of the People's Republic of China〗〖1980-1985〗〖System〗〖Cooperative Medical Care〗〖Management〗〖Rural Doctors〗
In January 1980, the Provincial Health Department and other units jointly forwarded the Health The "Rural Cooperative Medical Regulations (Trial Draft)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, the National Pharmaceutical Administration, and the National Supply and Marketing Cooperatives.
The charter clearly stipulates the nature of cooperative medical care, the tasks of cooperative medical stations, the form and management institutions, funds and management systems of cooperative medical care.
In August 1981, the Provincial Department of Health and other units issued the "Joint Notice on Consolidating the Development of Cooperative Medical Care and Running the Production Brigade Health Clinic", requesting the suspension or failure to establish cooperative medical care. Medical brigades that meet the conditions must be established as soon as possible.
Those who do not have the conditions and have barefoot doctors must set up health clinics and reasonably resolve the remuneration of barefoot doctors. In addition to recording work points,
Cash subsidies should be given. Barefoot doctors who pass the assessment and reach the technical secondary school level will be issued a rural doctor certificate and given a cash subsidy equivalent to the level of private teachers. The Provincial Department of Health issued the "Opinions on Effectively Conducting the Assessment of Barefoot Doctors", which stipulates unified assessment content, standards, methods, rural doctor certificates, etc.
After 1982, with the development of rural economic system reform, the rural medical system gradually developed in the direction of providing medical services in various forms
. Most of the original cooperative medical institutions were transformed into collective or individual medical offices and became clinics in streets or administrative villages. Barefoot doctors were transformed into rural doctors or health workers, and most of the cooperative medical system was disbanded. A few places with good economic conditions still adhere to the cooperative medical system. In 1985, 70% of the villages in Zhaoyuan County implemented cooperative medical care.
The main form of medical service is collective management, and most of them implement the contract system in management. Statistics at the end of 1985 showed that there were 87,533 clinics in administrative villages in the province, accounting for 95.18% of the total number of administrative villages; there were 143,483 rural doctors (including health workers), of which 90,670 had obtained rural doctor qualifications. Certificate.