After Minister Li glanced through it, he clapped his hands on the table and exclaimed:
"Well, well, Comrade Sanqi, you've done another great deed. With this 'Barefoot Doctor's Handbook' in hand, I, an old lady, can become a doctor, haha."
The heavy stone in Lin Sanqi's heart finally fell to the ground. It was obvious that the old lady fully realized the importance and ease of learning of the "Barefoot Doctor Manual".
But Lin Sanqi had other concerns, so he reminded:
"Minister Li, I think the success of the barefoot doctor program depends on you.
First, you have to report to your superiors and tell them that hospitals are now fully popularized in the city. Every county in BR has a hospital, plus the infectious disease hospital promoted by our Bao'an County in every city.
What is lacking now is the countryside. After all, there are more farmers than workers in our country. How to solve the medical problems of farmers is also something we should focus on.
Currently, rural healthcare is almost nonexistent. Farmers can only go to cities for medical treatment, which is inconvenient and costly. Farmers either delay treatment or die from illness. We must change this situation.
Therefore, we need to train a large number of doctors that rural areas can afford, so that farmers can also afford to see a doctor. At least they can have doctors to see minor illnesses and medicine to take, so that minor illnesses will not be delayed until it is too late.
Therefore, you must ask your superiors to personally issue instructions to promote the barefoot doctor program as a key program this year, so that local governments will truly pay attention to it."
Upon hearing this, Minister Li hugged the Barefoot Doctor Manual to his chest and sighed:
"I'm so ashamed. I've been a minister for so many years, but my work still leaves a lot to be desired. I've indeed neglected the vast rural areas."
But we can't completely blame the old lady. After all, the country was newly built and there was a lot of work to be done. It was really difficult. It was good enough that the city hospital could be run well.
"Minister Li, don't blame yourself. Let the past be the past. What's important is the future. We always have to look forward. It's not too late to change now."
After the Chinese New Year, you should immediately organize every county in every province across the country to send a doctor or teacher, or if that doesn't work, a government official will do, and have them come to Bao'an County. We will be responsible for training the teachers.
Then, let these teachers go back and conduct comprehensive training for rural youth throughout the county based on this "Barefoot Doctor Manual," and strive to train a qualified barefoot doctor within two months.
After listening to this, Minister Li suddenly stood up and asked:
"Comrade Sanqi, do you have any written documents regarding the implementation of the nationwide rural doctor training program? Oh, that's the barefoot doctor training program you mentioned?"
Lin Sanqi took out another file bag from his backpack. These days, everything requires requests and reports, so of course he brought written materials with him.
"Okay, as long as you have the materials, come with me and report to Leader Jing right now. We're raising our own funds, running our own hospital, our own pharmaceutical factory, and training our own teachers. Leader Jing will definitely approve it on the spot."
Lin Sanqi knew immediately that the Ministry's approval alone would be useless, so he stood up.
"Let's go and report our work now."
The next day, Lin Sanqi got a new position, in charge of the national rural medical and health work, and in charge of the Bao'an County Pharmaceutical Industrial Park. He was just waiting to go through the procedures after the New Year.
Lin Sanqi did not feel any joy, but rather felt both amused and helpless, because his duties were too confusing and complicated, and he had a lot of titles.
Being a leader in the 1960s was definitely a heavy responsibility, especially in this era of poverty.
In the leader’s words, ten thousand years is too long, we must seize the day.
The Ministry of Health held an emergency meeting behind closed doors
Minister Li sat in the first seat, and the other 13 deputy ministers sat on both sides in order, and at the back were the heads of various departments and bureaus.
Lin Sanqi sat at the very end. After all, his position was more of a temporary one and he would definitely have to return it to the department in the future.
Minister Li glanced at Lin Sanqi and then spoke:
"Today we have a new colleague, Comrade Lin Sanqi, welcome everyone."
There was warm applause in the conference room, and Lin Sanqi stood up and bowed to everyone.
"Comrade Lin Sanqi needs no introduction. As a timely helper to our health system, your reputation is well-known. Who in the world doesn't know you?"
Everyone in the conference room chuckled.
Of course, some people were jealous because Lin Sanqi was their subordinate a few years ago, but now he has suddenly become their superior.
"Also, I have some good news for everyone. Comrade Lin Sanqi has brought a full $200 million in funding to our health system. Ahem, it was originally $500 million, but the higher-ups requisitioned an additional $300 million.
Even if it's $200 million, it's enough for our health system to make some major systemic moves. Things that we didn't have the money to do before can now be done. The days of everyone reading a newspaper and drinking tea are coming to an end."
The originally pleasant atmosphere was suddenly broken by Minister Li and instantly became murderous.
Everyone in the meeting was pretending, but after hearing this, they all sat up straighter and their heartbeats quickened.
Minister Li looked around at everyone and then said coldly:
"My superiors are very dissatisfied with the work of our Ministry of Health. For this reason, I have already made a self-criticism to them and promised to rectify our work starting next year. Anyone who continues to slack off and fail to act will be punished by their superiors. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Lin Sanqi sat in his seat, looking around. He liked to see others sweating profusely.
He was present when his superiors criticized him. Fortunately, Minister Li was highly appreciated by his superiors. If it were someone else, he would probably be scared to death on the spot.
Minister Li was also very angry. He thought to himself, "You guys usually don't listen to me. Now that I have the order from the higher-ups, let's see who dares to disobey."
Minister Li took a sip of water and continued:
"Originally, this is the end-of-year summary meeting, and we should talk about some happy things. But looking back on the past year, I really can't think of any achievements worth writing about.
Comrade Lin Sanqi told me yesterday that the past should be left in the past; what's important is the future. I think that's true. We must be vigilant, comrades. Therefore, I would like to make some arrangements for next year's work.
The higher authorities have preliminarily approved my work report on "Establishing a National Rural Doctor Program" and instructed that starting next year, every village in all rural areas must have a rural doctor who is half farmer and half doctor.
Comrade Lin Sanqi called them barefoot doctors, which I think is very descriptive. When they go to the fields barefoot, they are farmers, and when they are not in the fields, they are doctors.
Upon hearing this, Vice Minister Zhang spoke:
"Minister Li, aren't you being too hasty? We're still promoting the plan of building a hospital in every county, and now you're demanding that every village have a doctor. This is a major issue affecting millions of rural residents.
Where will these millions of rural doctors come from? Where will the funds for building millions of new village clinics come from? How will the supply of medicines be solved? Right now, we have nothing, and we have to promote it next year, but it’s impossible to complete it.”
Minister Li acted arbitrarily this time, catching everyone off guard. She reported directly to her superiors without collective discussion because she knew the resistance was too great.
At this time she knocked on the table and said:
“There are difficulties, of course there are great difficulties, but just because there are difficulties, we will just ignore them? ...
“…”
“…”
Everyone in the conference room fell silent after hearing this, but they were definitely not convinced.
At this time, Deputy Minister Wei spoke up to smooth things over:
"Don't worry about the funding issue. Comrade Lin Sanqi has already solved most of it for us. Don't we still have 200 million US dollars in hand?
In addition, the training of barefoot doctor teachers was also undertaken by Bao'an County, which solved a big problem for us.
Our job is simple: to guide the establishment of 'village clinics' in rural areas across the country. This is an instruction from our superiors, and there is no room for negotiation. Everyone must take on the responsibility."
At this time, Vice Minister Zhang also asked:
"Li, what exactly do you want us to do? You need to give us a set of rules, right?" (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
