Minister Li had no idea of Lin Sanqi's inner thoughts. When he heard that Lin Sanqi was going to hand over 2 billion US dollars, of which 1 billion US dollars would be used for medical and health care, he jumped up excitedly.
"How much? Give our department $500 million? Let us use it as we please? Hahaha, we're going to be rich~~~"
Lin Sanqi was so frightened that he quickly reminded her, "Minister Li, please keep your voice down. This is too naked."
The old lady waved her hand and said indifferently:
"This matter doesn't need to be kept secret. Not only is it not kept secret, we will even publicize it with great fanfare, publicizing the heroic deeds of Comrade Lin Sanqi and the greatness of Bao'an County."
Lin Sanqi quickly waved his hands:
"Minister Li, you've forgotten that the higher-ups have a 'three no' policy towards Bao'an County: no support, no opposition, and no publicity. We must keep a low profile and avoid causing controversy."
Minister Li looked at Lin Sanqi and said regretfully:
"You've made such a significant contribution to Bao'an County. If you don't publicize it and let the world know about it, that would be a great injustice to you..."
Lin Sanqi thought to himself, I have deposited 2 billion US dollars in a Swiss bank, and this is still considered unfair?
In a few years, when you confiscate all the pharmaceutical factory assets and replace him with someone else to be the top leader of Bao'an County, and force him to be unable to return home, that will be the real injustice.
"There's nothing wrong with it. We're all serving the people. The country is in such a difficult situation right now. I hope this little money from Bao'an County can help alleviate the country's financial difficulties."
Although two billion US dollars is a lot, it is indeed a drop in the bucket for a country.
Minister Li calmed down and asked again:
"So what's the second good news?"
Lin Sanqi took out five boxes of medicine from his backpack:
"Minister Li, look, these three drugs are our latest oral antibacterial drugs. Their efficacy is far superior to penicillin. I will give you a batch when the time comes. You can find a hospital to test them.
Another one is a fever-reducing and pain-relieving medicine, and another one is a stomach medicine.
Oh, by the way, speaking of stomach medicine, you should immediately send a batch to Lankao in southern Henan and give it to a secretary named Jiao Yulu.
The old lady nodded, and then said excitedly:
"Are these three antibiotics really more effective than penicillin? They must be very expensive, right? Is it possible to market them on a large scale?"
Minister Li had to be excited. It was like in 2016, when someone said he had invented a drug that could cure cancer. I believe everyone would be excited.
Lin Sanqi shook his head and rejected it:
"Minister Li, this medicine is quite expensive. We have already tried to sell it in Hong Kong. Just one box of this medicine is almost a worker's monthly salary, which is roughly RMB 20 to 50.
Even so, in Hong Kong, the demand is far from meeting the supply.
But I learned from the lessons of the anti-tuberculosis drugs and decided not to engage in foreign trade and rush to make money. Instead, I decided to prioritize the promotion of these antibacterial drugs, including these antipyretics and stomach medicines, in China, so that the Chinese people can use them first.
Minister Li looked at the medicine in his hand and said in embarrassment:
"The medicine is good, but it's too expensive. One box of medicine costs a month's salary. I'm afraid not many people in China can afford it, especially farmers."
Lin Sanqi chuckled and explained:
"Don't worry, this is the price for export. If it's for domestic use, we're prepared to sell this box of medicine at a loss. For example, this box of cephalexin is 1 yuan a box. Isn't that cheap enough?
The average wage of workers is around 37 yuan now, which should be affordable.
It is just that life is a little harder for our fellow farmers, but if a box of antibiotics can save a life, 1 yuan is not an astronomical figure for farmers.
When our raw material factory is able to produce raw materials in the future, the price will be even cheaper.
I said at the beginning that the best model is to make money abroad and then use the foreign money to subsidize the domestic market, thus forming a virtuous cycle."
The old lady nodded repeatedly:
"Your method is great, it's excellent. Currently, infectious diseases account for 79% of all clinical diseases.
As long as there are drugs that can control the infection, we can definitely save more lives. Comrade Sanqi, you have done a great deed."
Lin Sanqi reminded:
"Minister Li, medicine alone isn't enough right now. We lack hospitals and doctors. If this problem isn't solved, it won't matter how much medicine Bao'an County produces."
The old lady sighed, then said in a somewhat disappointed tone:
"It takes at least three years to train a qualified clinical doctor, even for a junior college graduate. Furthermore, building a new hospital is a time-consuming and labor-intensive undertaking.
Regarding the infectious disease hospital project you launched in some provinces and cities a few months ago, as far as I know, except for Xingtai, Tangshan and other places where hospitals are being built rapidly as planned, other regions are dragging their feet.
I'm really angry about this. They used to say it was because our ministry didn't give us the money, so the local government couldn't afford to build a new hospital. Now that we have the money, they're still dragging their feet. They really don't value medical care at all."
There are about 3,000 county-level administrative units in the country. As of 1964, the country still had not achieved the goal of having a hospital in every county.
Lin Sanqi's previous goal was to have an infectious disease hospital in every region (prefecture-level city), but this plan was not completed either.
It can be seen that by the early 1960s, the work style of cadres had begun to slacken. After a few years, they all became quails and trembled in fear, making it even more impossible to speed up the construction of hospitals.
Lin Sanqi snorted lightly and said unhappily:
"Why else could it be? It's because the money is in the hands of Bao'an County, and we in Bao'an County don't give money away casually.
In order to prevent project funds from being misappropriated, Bao'an County strictly requires that funds be used for their intended purposes and that money be disbursed according to the progress of the project.
Smarter cadres knew that this hospital was built for the local area, so they didn't have to pay for it themselves. Once it was built, the local people would benefit, so they hurried to build the hospital.
The less intelligent local officials felt that the money couldn't be used to build staff dormitories, provide benefits to employees of other units, or build office buildings, so their enthusiasm died."
The old lady also sighed:
"Who told us that our health department is a weak department? Even though our ministry has repeatedly stressed this, there is nothing we can do."
Lin Sanqi struck while the iron was hot and said:
"Minister Li, this time I'm going to change my thinking and learn from the great man. I've decided to use the strategy of surrounding the cities from the countryside.
First, we need to address the common diseases of ordinary people at the grassroots level. I want to launch rural doctor training nationwide."
Minister Li knew that Lin Sanqi had many creative ideas and was rich, so the methods he came up with must be practical. So he became very interested and asked:
"Tell me, what are you going to do? How do you want our department to cooperate?"
"Minister Li, this is what I think.
First of all, the source of doctors. As you just said, it takes at least three years to train a doctor. That’s too long and we can’t afford to wait. Moreover, the number of graduates is far from enough for national use.
My plan is that we can select an educated young person from each rural area to serve as the barefoot doctor.
This educated young person could be from the village or a sent-down youth. A high school diploma is sufficient, or, to lower the bar, even elementary school literature. Or a graduate of a private school is acceptable; as long as they can read and write.
Then we gathered this group of young farmers together for two months of off-the-job training.
There is no need to teach them any advanced medical knowledge, such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc., all of which should be cancelled.
Instead, the focus is on diseases. It is simple and clear to teach these barefoot doctors how to identify diseases, how to treat them, how to recognize Chinese herbal medicines, etc.
If there is a barefoot doctor in such a village and it is promoted nationwide, it will immediately solve the embarrassing situation where most common diseases have nowhere to be treated.
People can solve most minor illnesses and minor diseases in the village clinic, so they don’t have to wait until serious illnesses come to the big city. In this way, people’s health problems can be solved well.”
Minister Li's eyes lit up, and he asked anxiously:
"So how do we prepare these village clinics? How do we solve the problem of hospital space? There are millions of villages across the country, and the cost of building clinics is not something that can be solved with just a few hundred million." (End of this chapter)
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