BEIJING — Medical disputes in China have dropped for five years in a row, according to the National Health Commission.

Chinese authorities have in recent years targeted lowering medical disputes as a key measure to improve medical services.

The number of medical disputes has gone down by 20.1 percent over the past five years. The decline continued in the first eight months of this year, said Guo Yanhong, an official with the commission, at a press conference held in Beijing on Sept 7.

The number of criminal cases in which medical practitioners fall victims has also dropped by 41.1 percent since 2013, Guo said.

As a way to improve dispute settlements, more than 85 percent of the hospitals above the county or district level have set up special offices to handle complaints. Meanwhile, more than 110,000 medical institutes have been insured for compensation incurred in cases where they are held responsible, Guo added.

The Lancet, the global medical journal, lifted China to the 48th place in the Global Medical Accessibility and Quality rankings in 2016, up from the 60th place in 2015. China was cited as one of the countries that have made the greatest progress between the years studied.