My respects to
Good morning!
Professor Han Qide, Vice chairman, National People's Congress
Dr Yin Li, Vice minister, Ministry of Health
Ms Hou Yan, Chief, General Office, Ministry of Health
Mr Liu Xinming, Director-General, Department of policy and Regulation, Ministry of Health
Mr Ren Minghui, Director-General, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Health
Professor Rao Keqin, Center for health statistics and Information, Ministry of Health
I am very pleased to be here today for the Workshop on Monitoring and evaluation for health reform in promoting evidence-based decision-making.
The Government of China launched earlier this year its health reform plans, with the aim to achieve universal coverage by 2020. The goals are laudable and ambitious, but they are backed by substantial financial resources for a three-year implementation.
The provinces and regions are now developing implementation strategies for health reform, to take into account local needs. Beyond high political commitment and financial resources, reform depends on how successfully the vision is implemented at provincial and municipal levels.
The major challenge over the next 10 years is to translate health resources into better health, higher risk protection, and greater satisfaction for people across all communities in China.
Monitoring and evaluation systems are critical to this effort, to assess progress and to determine whether the efforts are achieving improved results in terms of access, quality, and outcomes.
In addition, we need to closely examine trends in light of the many policy changes underway. For example, there was a recent announcement to raise medical treatment fees for some clinical services to compensate in part for reduced revenues from drugs. The impact on utilization and health should be monitored closely to see how the people respond to such changes.
In August, the Ministry of Health and WHO jointly held a meeting to discuss monitoring and evaluation for health reform. Impressive progress has since been made. The government has developed a national framework/plan for monitoring and evaluation of health reform. The framework is being used as the basis for identifying a core set of indicators. This builds on international experience, adapted to the unique Chinese context.
During your discussions, it is important to remember the vast differences in economic and human resources across regions in China. Therefore we need to identify not only how the country is doing as a whole – but also the differences between provinces, and urban and rural areas.
Explaining these variations and trends requires more detailed research. Many experienced as well as young researchers have been invited to join this meeting, to identify areas for health policy and systems research. We encourage you to use the government's monitoring and evaluation framework discussed today as the basis for your operational research agenda and to support greater understanding of trends. This will provide information for the government to make better policy choices.
Distinguished colleagues,
WHO maintains a long-standing collaboration with the government on health care reform. We are committed to support national health reform, and specifically to provide technical backup, as requested, in strengthening the systems for public health, pharmaceutical policies, service delivery, and financing and medical security.
Over the next few years, WHO will actively support systems for monitoring and evaluation of the reform. This commitment includes the establishment of WHO Collaborating Centers to strengthen long-term cooperation in technical areas related to health reform, and to increase capacity in informatics and health information systems.
In conclusion, we thank the Ministry of Health for providing leadership in monitoring and evaluation of health reform, and for organizing this seminar. Dr. Liu Xinming and Dr. Rao Keqin have worked closely together to make this effort successful. We also thank China Medical Board for their support to this workshop. Lastly, we recognize the active participation of many international health partners in Beijing, including UNAIDS, UNICEF, and UNFPA, among others.
I wish you great success in this meeting.
Thank you!