Recently, the National Health Commission, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the National Medical Insurance Administration, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, formulated the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Rehabilitation Medical Work” to increase the supply of rehabilitation medical services.
The opinions are divided into seven parts, including overall requirements and main goals, improving the rehabilitation medical service system, strengthening rehabilitation medical talent training and team building, improving rehabilitation medical service capabilities, and innovating rehabilitation medical service models.
The opinion proposes that by 2022, we will strive to gradually establish a professional team of rehabilitation medicine with reasonable quantity and excellent quality, with 6 rehabilitation physicians and 10 rehabilitation therapists per 100,000 population. By 2025, there will be 8 rehabilitation physicians and 12 rehabilitation therapists per 100,000 people. Rehabilitation medical service capabilities have been steadily improved, service methods have become more diversified, and the field of rehabilitation medical services has been continuously expanded. The people enjoy all-round and full-cycle rehabilitation medical services.
The opinion clearly calls for strengthening the construction of rehabilitation hospitals and rehabilitation medicine departments in general hospitals. In principle, every provincial capital city and prefecture-level city with a permanent population of more than 3 million has at least one rehabilitation hospital of grade II or above; counties with a permanent population of more than 300,000 have at least one county-level public hospital with a rehabilitation medicine department; counties with a permanent population of less than 300,000 have at least one county-level public hospital with a rehabilitation medicine outpatient department.
The opinion also proposed that medical institutions should provide rehabilitation medical services on an as-needed basis in accordance with hierarchical diagnosis and treatment requirements and in combination with functional positioning. The Rehabilitation Medicine Department of a tertiary general hospital, the Rehabilitation Department of a tertiary traditional Chinese medicine hospital and a tertiary rehabilitation hospital focus on providing rehabilitation medical services to patients with critical, severe and difficult and complex diseases. Public tertiary hospitals must undertake tasks such as rehabilitation medical discipline construction, talent training, technical support, and promotion of research results within their jurisdiction, play a supporting and leading role, and encourage tertiary hospitals organized by social forces to actively participate. Rehabilitation medicine departments of second-level general hospitals, rehabilitation departments of second-level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, second-level rehabilitation hospitals, rehabilitation medical centers, primary medical institutions, etc. focus on providing rehabilitation medical services to patients with clear diagnoses, stable conditions, or patients who require long-term rehabilitation.
The following is the full text of the policy interpretation of the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Rehabilitation Medical Work”:
1. Related background
Rehabilitation medical work is an important part of health care. Accelerating the development of rehabilitation medical work is of great significance to comprehensively promoting the construction of a healthy China, implementing the national strategy of actively responding to the aging population, and ensuring and improving people’s livelihood. In order to implement the important decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, increase the supply of rehabilitation medical services, and improve the rehabilitation medical service capabilities in response to major public health emergencies, based on the high-quality development requirements of medical institutions and the shortcomings of rehabilitation medical work, and based on in-depth research on rehabilitation medical work and summarizing experience, our committee, together with relevant departments, studied and formulated the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Rehabilitation Medical Work”.
2. Formulation process
Our committee conducted an investigation and study on the rehabilitation medical work in some regions and medical institutions, summarized local experience, sorted out the shortcomings and weaknesses, adhered to a problem-oriented approach, and combined with the new situation and new requirements faced by the development of rehabilitation medical work in the new era, worked with relevant departments to study and formulate the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Rehabilitation Medical Work”. This document has extensively solicited opinions from local health administrative departments, medical institutions, industry associations, hospital managers, and rehabilitation medical professionals, and has fully incorporated them. At the same time, opinions were solicited from relevant departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Medical Insurance Bureau, the Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the Disabled Persons’ Federation, and consensus was reached on relevant content.
3. Main content
The “Opinions” are divided into seven parts: Part One, overall requirements and main goals. The second part is to improve the rehabilitation medical service system. This includes increasing the number of medical institutions and beds that provide rehabilitation medical services, strengthening the construction of rehabilitation medicine departments in rehabilitation hospitals and general hospitals, strengthening the rehabilitation medical capacity building of county-level hospitals and grassroots medical institutions, and improving the rehabilitation medical service network. The third part is to strengthen the training of rehabilitation medical personnel and team building. This includes strengthening the education and training of rehabilitation medical talents, strengthening job training for rehabilitation medical professionals, and strengthening the reserve of rehabilitation medical teams in emergencies. The fourth part is to improve rehabilitation medical service capabilities. This includes improving the rehabilitation medical work system, service guidelines and technical specifications, strengthening rehabilitation medical capacity building, improving grassroots rehabilitation medical capabilities, and improving traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation service capabilities. Part 5: Innovative rehabilitation medical service model. This includes gradually advancing the multidisciplinary cooperation model between rehabilitation and clinical practice, actively developing community and home-based rehabilitation care, and promoting the integration of rehabilitation care and rehabilitation assistive device configuration services. Part Six: Increase support and guarantees. This includes coordinating and improving rehabilitation medical service prices and medical insurance payment management, mobilizing the enthusiasm of rehabilitation medical professionals, strengthening the construction of rehabilitation medical informatization, and promoting the development of rehabilitation medical related industries. Part Seven: Organization and Implementation. This includes strengthening organizational leadership, clarifying department responsibilities, strengthening guidance and evaluation, and increasing publicity efforts.