Dunhuang city, located in Northwest China’s Gansu province, has been promoting the construction of a county-level medical community since 2018. A tightly knit medical community, which consists of two local county-level public hospitals, one community health service center, 11 township hospitals and 64 village clinics, started operation on Nov 26, 2018. The newly established medical community has broken the original systematic barriers, and can allocate medical resources as a whole.

The community has enabled doctors to work at various sites; patients to be transferred among grassroots, high-level and specialized hospitals; as well as technical support and the sharing of resources. As a result, it has promoted high-quality medical resources to grassroots medical institutions, solving people’s difficulties in seeking medical services.

A doctor of the Dunhuang medical community examines a patient at the hospital of Dunhuang city, Gansu province, Nov 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

A doctor of the Dunhuang medical community examines a patient at the hospital of Dunhuang city, Gansu province, Nov 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

A nurse of the Dunhuang medical community gives a patient an intravenous injection at the central hospital of Zhuanqukou town, Dunhuang city, Gansu province, Nov 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

A staff member of the Dunhuang medical community handles hospitalization settlement procedures for patients and their family members at the hospital of Dunhuang city, Gansu province, Nov 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]