05 Liu (jl/d)

To provide health services to its population of 1.2 billion, China has 200 000 health establishments including 62 000 public hospitals (Ministry of Health 1996). China has some 3 million hospital beds in operation, averaging 2.4 beds per thousand people. This is a higher per capita ratio than is found in other low-income regions of the world. Three-quarters of China’s total health spending goes to pay for inpatient or outpatient hospital care, and over half of hospital spending is on pharmaceuticals (Wei Ying 1996). Most hospital facilities are owned and operated by the central, provincial, county and city governments. There are about 400 county hospitals (300 beds on average) in China, which make up the third tier of the rural health care system. These hospitals are usually the last point of referral for inpatient treatment of rural residents, since few farmers can afford to be treated at specialized bigcity hospitals.