Jilin province has started another round of health-care reforms centered on a systemized, standardized system for the city of Songyuan, in line with the Chinese government’s medical reforms of 2009, whose purpose was to provide accessible, affordable health care services for more people.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission has been a major force behind the reform and Jilin introduced the new policy only recently, to ensuring that people seek medical care at community clinics first then turn to larger hospitals only if necessary.

In Songyuan, five hospitals began the process by working with nine community clinics, providing top-quality resources, including doctors, facilities, and funds to make sure that more people used the community clinics first for basic health care instead of flocking to big city hospitals as many did in the past, overburdening them.

In this way, people also have lower medical bills while still receiving the same standard medical services, one city health and family planning official explained.