Half a year purchase nearly 20 million yuan, medical equipment began to release

At 8 a.m. on May 5, Wang Xiaowei (pseudonym) began her work. Her job is a grass-roots doctor in Yonglong Community Health Center, Nanchuan District, Chongqing City. There are about 100 families in this jurisdiction. As the only doctor in the clinic, Wang Xiaowei is the gatekeeper of community health. At most, there are 10 people a day, and at least 1-2 people. Most of her patients are the elderly and children in the jurisdiction. 

According to the China Statistical Yearbook, by the end of 2017, there were 933024 primary health institutions, including 34652 community health service centers, 36551 township health centers, 632057 village clinics and 229221 outpatient departments. According to the data of the Statistical Information Center of the National Health and Health Commission, there are more than 930,000 primary health institutions in China, which play a role in the medical system and provide basic public health services for residents. For example, the establishment and management of residents'health records, health education, assistance in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, endemic diseases and parasitic diseases, screening of high-risk groups, key chronic diseases and case management, etc. However, the lack of qualified personnel and the inability to equip large and medium-sized medical equipment in primary health institutions make it difficult for most medical services to be carried out at the grass-roots level. It is undeniable that in order to improve the medical service capacity of primary medical institutions, it is necessary to rationally configure and update the necessary facilities and equipment. After all, in some grass-roots health institutions, the management of residents'health records is still in the stage of paper records. In order to enhance the service capacity of grass-roots medical institutions, governments at all levels have also issued a large number of policies to promote graded diagnosis and treatment and enhance the ability of grass-roots diagnosis and treatment. From the perspective of capital investment, local governments have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in strengthening primary health care. Take Guangdong as an example. In the Implementation Plan of Deepening the Comprehensive Reform of the Medical and Health System of Guangdong Province promulgated in 2018, it is clearly pointed out that within three years, the financial plans of Guangdong Province at all levels will arrange 50 billion yuan to increase support for primary health care.

In the medical equipment industry, grass-roots medical market is not as popular as the third-tier doctors, mainly because the grass-roots procurement capacity is insufficient and the market is limited. However, driven by the policy of graded diagnosis and treatment, the equipment market of grass-roots medical treatment began to expand. So, how big is the primary medical device market?In China, hospitals are divided into three levels according to the evaluation indexes of hospital scale, research direction, talent and technical force, medical hardware and equipment, and each level is further divided into A, B and C, among which three hospitals are added special levels.

In China's statistical yearbook, grass-roots health institutions include community health service centers, village clinics, township hospitals and outpatient departments. Therefore, the scope of primary health care should include primary hospitals, community health service centers, village clinics and other primary health institutions. According to the tender announcement of grass-roots medical and health institutions in recent six months, the purchasing amount of medical devices in 13 grass-roots medical institutions in six months is about 18.94 million yuan. Among them, the purchasing amount of first-class hospitals is between 1 million and 3 million yuan, and the purchasing power of community health service centers is weaker. In addition, the purchasing volume of medical devices in village clinics has gradually increased due to the promotion of poverty alleviation policy. Even without estimating, we can judge the whole grass-roots medical device market can not be underestimated.

This market will continue to release under the policy-driven. Taking diagnosis as an example, one of the biggest problems of purchasing large-scale equipment in grass-roots health institutions in the past was that the diagnostic quantity was not high, and the problems of equipment maintenance fees and reagent shelf-life in the later stage made the hospital unable to make ends meet. With the deepening of the policy of graded diagnosis and treatment, more patients will return to the grass-roots.

As early as 2015, the State Council issued guidance, focusing on improving the ability of primary medical services, improving the grading system of diagnosis and treatment of common, frequently-occurring and chronic diseases as a breakthrough point.

In 2017, the two sessions reiterated that 85% coverage should be achieved by the end of 2017. Since then, graded diagnosis and treatment has also appeared in every year's government work report.

A village clinic doctor said: "Medical insurance diversion plays a very important role. In the new rural cooperative medical reimbursement system, residents in the village clinic will enjoy a higher reimbursement rate."