CCTV News: On January 20, the National Health Commission held a press conference to introduce the relevant situation of the health system serving the people.

A reporter asked, among the many practical things to serve the people, why do you especially choose to provide hemodialysis services to the county people? For those counties that do not currently have hemodialysis service capabilities, what are their specific plans to help them improve their service capabilities?

Jiao Yahui, director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission, said that hemodialysis is an important means for patients with end-stage renal disease to maintain their lives. Patients need to go to medical institutions for hemodialysis 2-3 times a week. If there are no relevant medical conditions nearby, patients need to travel back and forth for a long distance, or even move to a medical institution with conditions, which causes great inconvenience to daily life.

Jiao Yahui introduced that in recent years, we have continuously guided county hospitals to continuously improve their hemodialysis service capabilities through the assessment of medical service capabilities of county hospitals. As of the end of 2024, about 90% of county hospitals in the country have hemodialysis service capabilities, and in the past decade, it has increased by more than 20 percentage points. From a national perspective, there are still some counties that need to be further enhanced in their hemodialysis service capabilities. Some counties do not have institutions that can provide hemodialysis services, and some county hospital equipment needs to be added or updated.

In response to this issue, counties with a permanent population of more than 100,000 will be able to provide hemodialysis services this year. As one of the practical projects for the people in the health system in 2025, the main purpose is to target the elimination of service gaps and enhance service weaknesses for counties with a relatively concentrated population of more than 100,000, and promote the radiation of services to patients with relatively small populations in the surrounding counties, further improve the national county hemodialysis service capacity, and make dialysis patients more convenient and comfortable to seek medical treatment.

According to the previous information, there are currently 72 counties with a permanent population of more than 100,000, and their county-level public comprehensive hospitals do not provide hemodialysis services. The National Health Commission will combine the county's medical service needs and actual conditions to train personnel to have the ability, the lack of facilities and equipment is filled, the facilities and equipment are old and updated, and each county is one policy to promote solutions.

The first is to improve hard conditions. Based on the population size, the number of dialysis patients and the service status of other medical institutions in the county, some county hospitals have set up hemodialysis rooms and equipped with hemodialysis machines and other related medical equipment; for counties with outdated equipment, insufficient number, and unable to meet the needs of patients, equipment is updated and added.

The second is to enhance soft power. Through urban medical resources being transferred to county hospitals and counterpart assistance to tertiary hospitals, hemodialysis personnel, technology, services and management are organized to extend to county hospitals in a planned manner. At the same time, we will organize and carry out helping and training county hospital talents, and select potential medical personnel to go to higher-level hospitals for further training to ensure that county hospitals can master the ability to independently carry out hemodialysis services as soon as possible.

The third is to strengthen quality management. Quality supervision, management and control work will be carried out for the hemodialysis room of the county hospital, especially the newly opened dialysis room, to ensure medical quality and medical safety, and to safeguard the health rights and interests of dialysis patients.

In the next step, we will conduct regular follow-up and dispatch in conjunction with the assessment of the medical service capacity of county hospitals to ensure that by the end of 2025, counties with permanent population of more than 100,000 can provide hemodialysis services to facilitate local patients.