context: Similar to government reactions after SARS in 2003, funding will be pumped into hardware development. But many follow-up measures will be needed if the new system can be kept on high alert and respond swiftly to another epidemic.
National Development and Reform Commission, National Health Commission and State Administration of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) jointly released ‘Plan to develop public health prevention, control and treatment abilities’ on 20 May 2020, specifying
- objectives
- focusing on weaknesses exposed by COVID-19, establishing solid protection on citizen health
- tasks
- developing a modern system of control and prevention
- every province should have at least one P3 lab, every city should have at least one P2 lab
- enhancing county-level CDC to discover and deal with outbreaks
- enhancing lab testing, upgrading lab equipment and biosecurity
- enhancing emergency response abilities
- increasing treatment abilities of county-level hospitals
- focusing on improving the infrastructure of one county-level hospital in each county
- improving infrastructure, upgrading equipment and facilities
- enhancing infectious disease departments and developing independent wards for infectious diseases
- developing wards that can be transformed into ICUs when needed
- ensuring sufficient beds based on the local population
- improving urban infectious disease treatment network
- establishing such networks based on local needs
- expanding capacity to treat more infectious disease patients
- enhancing development of ICUs
- improving infectious disease lab testing
- enhancing development of TCM departments to provide integrated TCM-western medicine treatments
- selecting one to two hospitals in each city for expansion to ensure sufficient beds for local population
- upgrading treatment bases for serious outbreaks
- developing one to three treatment bases in each province based on existing hospitals
- enhancing ICU development, with 10-15 percent of beds being in ICU
- developing wards that can be transformed into ICUs when needed
- improving facilities in infection and respiration departments
- increasing public health testing, research and emergency medical assistance abilities
- increasing storage of emergency medical supplies
- helping TCM hospitals build P2 or P3 labs
- provinces should select a few hospitals for development to meet demands of level one emergency responses, and establishing a high quality technical team to provide medical assistance during serious outbreaks
- redeveloping public facilities to meet demands during an epidemic
- developing a modern system of control and prevention
- funding
- central and local fiscal budget, as well as local special purpose bonds will be used to fund development
- supportive measures
- list of medical supplies treatment bases should have in storage