311 counties to pilot China's hospital reform

 BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- China has nominated 311 counties or county-level cities in a program to pilot reform of the country's public healthcare facilities, the Ministry¹ of Health announced on Tuesday.

The national initiative includes 83 counties or county-level cities in east China, 136 in central China and 92 in west China, according to the ministry.

The 311 counties or county-level cities are expected to undergo reforms in finance, management and human resources by 2015 to enhance their capacity.

The ministry asked the counties to each set up their own leading group to guide the reform, and collect data and submit reports to upper-level health authorities to generate experience for future reform of major public hospitals in cities.

According to a guideline published earlier in June by the State Council, or Cabinet, the pilot program plans to wipe out the existing financing mechanism² of Chinese hospitals relying heavily on medicine sales while their services are undervalued.

County hospitals are known as the backbone³ of the country's health care network in rural areas, and directly serve over 900 million Chinese. Rural patients, however, tend to flood into major hospitals in cities to seek better quality services.

The program has set a goal of restoring people's trust in county-level medical facilities and serving 90 percent of all the patients within each county.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

3 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。