Chapter 283 Barefoot doctors promoted the development of medical industry
For example, when facing malaria, they would offer three treatment options: acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and Western medicine. Before proposing a treatment plan, they would first give preventive measures. Don't underestimate this detail. In medical prevention and treatment, prevention comes first and rescue comes second. Barefoot doctors seem to understand the logic of this better than today's medical system.

In addition, there are more amazing operations in the book. If there is no pregnancy test strip to determine whether a woman is pregnant, you can use frogs. Inject female urine into the frog's subcutaneous tissue and then observe it after a period of time. If the frog shows signs of ovulation or ejaculation, it means that the woman is pregnant. This slightly humorous folk method is extremely reliable because it is the Hogben pregnancy test invented by zoologist John Bull in 1930.

To this day, it is still considered the most reliable method of testing in some areas with underdeveloped medical conditions.

At that time, this book was very suitable for the national conditions of Longguo. It aimed to enable people with low cultural level to learn to use the cheapest and simplest methods to treat common illnesses in the shortest time. It was a masterpiece to promote and popularize medical technology.

Over the past 30 years, this "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" has made a huge contribution to the health of the Chinese people. There are still many magical things in this book. Whether you are ready to travel through time or not, you can read it. At the very least, it can help you learn more about medical knowledge and avoid being fooled by medical businessmen who like to show off their anxiety and go against their ancestors' teachings.

This book is already quite hardcore, but there is something even more hardcore than it, and that is the barefoot doctors who study and implement this knowledge.

The emergence of barefoot doctors stems from the anger of the elderly towards the current social situation.

On June 1965, 6, the then health department reported to the higher authorities, in which they mentioned that of the 26 million health technicians in the country, 140% were in large cities, 70% in county towns, and only 20% in rural areas. More than 10% of medical funds were in cities, while rural areas accounted for only about 70%.

The higher-ups were furious about this and issued a directive on health work the same day after hearing the report, which stated: "Tell the Ministry of Health that the health department only provides work to 15 percent of the country's population, and most of them are the masters. The vast majority of farmers have no access to medical care. There are no doctors and no medicines. The health department is not a people's health department. It should be changed to an urban health department or an urban master's health department!"

When Yu thought about the drowning people in the world, he felt as if he were drowning himself!
This is the famous June 26th Directive in history. Since then, the medical and health focus of the entire country has been shifted to rural areas with a larger population. Senior medical personnel from cities came to rural areas and, while carrying out a regular medical tour system, they also trained a group of medical workers with a new identity for rural areas, the barefoot doctors.

This was definitely a unique leap forward in the popularization of medicine in human history. After the establishment of the New Dragon Kingdom, many of its theories far surpassed the limitations of that era, and even surpassed the present. It was only due to the limitations of the productivity at that time that it could not truly exert its overwhelming power.

Barefoot doctors are such a highly advanced medical concept. Unlike today when you have to wait in line to see a doctor, the scene at that time was that doctors looked for patients. In the vast rural areas, people would often see a hurried figure carrying a red medicine box, shuttling between villages, sometimes even without having time to put down their rolled-up trouser legs for farming. These rural medical personnel, who had not received formal academic training and still had agricultural household registration, brought about earth-shaking changes in the public health situation at the grassroots level in China.

If you are sick, you have to take medicine. This seems to be common sense today, but it was not the mainstream logic in many villages in the old China and the early days of the new China. When you are sick, you chant ghosts, put a pot of fire in a cage, and the sick person jumps back and forth on it, cursing monsters and demons. Except for the full sense of ritual, there is no follow-up. It is not that people are stupid and do not want to treat the disease, but they do not know what other methods there are besides chanting ghosts. No matter how strong the light of modern medicine in big cities is, it cannot cross the barriers of thousands of mountains and rivers to illuminate every corner, unless someone is willing to hold a torch and walk to the center of the corner. The old man's instructions on June 3 to support ordinary people quickly spread throughout China. The young people selected to become barefoot doctors studied and grew up in the commune hospital, usually for 4- months, with problem solving as the center. After mastering the basics of medicine and the knowledge of common disease prevention and treatment, they became independent general practitioners in the brigade.

The greatest contribution of barefoot doctors is to popularize public health and basic medical care knowledge in rural areas. It can be found in the catalog of the "Barefoot Doctor Handbook" that the first content is the introduction of public health knowledge such as sanitary drinking water and post-disaster epidemic prevention. In addition to treating patients to achieve the purpose of treatment, barefoot doctors are more important to lead villagers to prevent diseases, disinfect wells, guide the construction of toilets, vaccinate children of appropriate age, and every now and then use local materials to boil a large pot of preventive medicine for everyone to drink.

What cost did the villagers have to pay for the 7/24 home visits and integrated prevention and treatment medical services? At that time, the rural areas implemented cooperative medical care, with each person paying 1-3 yuan per year for medical insurance, and 5 cents for registration. They could even pay after seeing a doctor. It was truly universal medical care. The extremely low cost made barefoot doctors truly lifesavers that people could afford, use, and retain in that impoverished era.

Because of their status, barefoot doctors were treated preferentially by the masses. Although they were not cadres, they were still people of high status in the village. Sometimes, dozens of villagers would rush to finish their work in the morning because of their medical practice. In the era of barefoot doctors, people had a completely different doctor-patient relationship than today. Because they lived together for many years and some were even relatives, they had a very strong sense of identity and trust in each other. If barefoot doctors were put in the future, they would definitely be held accountable for practicing medicine without a license, but at that time they saved thousands of lives. There were no medical disputes in that era, let alone crazy people who killed doctors.

In 1965, the average life expectancy of Longguo was 49 years, 6 years lower than the world average; by 1975, the average life expectancy of Longguo was 64 years, 3 years higher than the world average. In 10 years, the average life expectancy of Longguo increased by 15 years. By 1980, about 90% of the production brigades in Longguo implemented cooperative medical care, forming a three-level health service network integrating prevention, medical treatment and health care. Through this unique medical system in the world at that time, Longguo became the first country in the third world to completely eliminate smallpox and polio, and greatly reduced infant mortality. This remarkable achievement was praised by the World Health Organization and the World Bank at that time as the Chinese model of "maximum health benefits with minimum investment".

In a country with universal poverty, low economic level, no modern medical equipment and extreme shortage of professional medical personnel, Longguo has miraculously provided the most basic medical insurance for hundreds of millions of citizens.

Their barefoot figures, carrying first aid kits on their shoulders, visiting patients and delivering medical services regardless of rain or shine, have become one of the warmest social collective memories of Longguo in the 20th century.

The functions of barefoot doctors have been replaced by the village doctor system in later generations. Now the functions of the health and epidemic prevention stations have been integrated into the public health departments of town health centers and community health centers, and the organization is more rigorous and involves more people than before.

The term "barefoot doctor" appears less and less in people's lives nowadays, and even many young friends understand it in a derogatory sense. In fact, this chapter is to tell everyone that barefoot doctor is a good term, a glorious identity, and a group of people worthy of respect!

(End of this chapter)