Medical Care

2004-03-01 18:00

Urban and Rural Medical Care Network There were only two small-scale, simply equipped government-operated medical institutions in Old Tibet and they were both located in Lhasa Today a medical care network is beginning to take shape throughout the length and breadth of Tibet.

In 1994 the region had over 1,200 medical institutions, more than 5,200 hospital beds, and nearly 10,0 0 professionally trained medical and health personnel; hospital beds per thousand reached 2 3 and doctors 21, both higher than the national averages Medical and health institutions above the county level are equipped with commonly used medical facilities Hospitals in most counties have X-ray machines, ECG machines, ultrasonic diagnostic equipment, operating tables, astral lamps, multi-use surgical kits and ambulances, and some counties also have B type ultrasonic diagnostic equipment and fibre gastroscopes Preventing and Curing Diseases The regional government puts prevention first in medical work and has strengthened work towards universal examination, treatment and prevention of epidemic and endemic diseases.

Beginning in the 1960s smallpox was entirely eliminated and the incidence of a wide variety of other epidemic and endemic diseases decreased considerably More than 88 percent of chronic active brucelliasis cases have been treated effectively through hospitalization and treatment, and incidence of morbidity and sources of epidemic infection have been essentially brought under control The incidence of endemic goiter has dropped below 8 percent as measured by sample surveys following the introduction of iodized table salt and orally taken iodipin capsules Medical research institutes have also made breakthroughs in the study of altitude sickness and other harmful conditions.

When it comes to saving and treating those afflicted with altitude-produced pulmonary edema, comas and chronic altitude sickness, Tibetan medical workers lead the world. Scheduled immunization work began in the 1980s Since 1986 children throughout the region have been receiving BCG vaccine, sugar-coated anterior poliomyelitis pills, combined anti pertussis-diphtheria tetanus drugs and measles vaccination: the child immunization rate is 85 percent.

Since the implementation of scheduled immunization, infectious disease morbidity and mortality rates have dropped by a considerable margin Currently, there are more than 80 antiepidemic stations and centres regionwide.

Women and children's health work has been similarly strengthened: 29 maternity and child care stations have been set up throughout the region, 108 hospitals over the county level have gynaecology and obstetrics departments, and 110 key townships have maternity and child care clinics.

Cervicitis, vaginitis and annexitis and other conditions harmful to the health of Tibetan women are being efficaciously prevented and treated. Currently, 50.8 percent of babies are being delivered using new methods (100 percent in Lhasa).

The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 500 per 10,000 in 1959 to 70 per 10,000 today and the infant mortality rate from 430 to 91.8 per thousand. Overall, free government-supplied medical services are available for Tibetans and other ethnic minorities Every year increased funding goes to free medical care, raising the standard of such care given to people in rural areas.

Currently, an average of 15 yuan per capita in free medical care is given farmers and herds men annually The government assumes the cost of ell serious diseases that require hospitalization and costs of operations.

Farmers and herdsmen are responsible for a portion of their medical expenses varying wilt their financial capacity. Tibetan Medicine The regional government sup plied capital for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region Hospital of Tibetan Medicine an ad six prefectural-level hospitals of Tibetan medicine, an addition of more than 350 hospital beds for patients receiving Tibetan medical treatment.

Some counties have hospitals of Tibetan medicine and most countylevel hospitals have a Tibetan medicine department with its own hospital beds. A college and a research institute of Tibetan medicine have been established to continue and develop this traditional medical art The government encourages veteran doctors of Tibetan medicine to write books summarizing their precious experiences.

The famous Four-Part Canon of Tibetan Medicine has been published in a new edition along with scores of newly compiled or written teaching materials and treatises including The Complete Four-Parl Canon of Tibetan Medicine Wall Chart Series, the "Tibetan Medicine" volume of the Encyclopedia of Medicine, Tibetan medicine Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Bromatology, and the New Compilation of Tibetan Medicine In recent years research specialists in Tibetan medicine have qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed more than 1,000 plants used in Tibetan medicine to determine their specific name, pharmacological components, functions and effects, and their proper use and dosage, with the result that Tibetan medicine has become more standardized and scientific.

At present, there are three fairly large factories producing Tibetan pharmaceuticals In addition, some prefectural- and county-level Tibetan medicine hospitals and Tibetan medicine departments in other hospitals themselves have the capacity to produce Tihetan pharmaceuticals.

The particular efficacy of traditional Tibetan patent medicines such as "Tsodru 70 Ingredients" "Tsodru Tashel," "Yunying 25 Ingredients" and "changjor" in treating common and stubborn illnesses has been proven through modern laboratory analysis and clinical observation. Combined treatment with Tibetan and Western medicine has produced cures in 73 percent of chronic atrophic gastritis cases