China started its first pilot program under which skillful urban medical workers will be sent to help develop medical services in rural areas in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province.

Vice Provincial Governor Li Ying said at Monday's start-up ceremony that 1,265 urban medical workers from 10 cities will be sent, beginning this week, to work at 43 county-level and 350 township hospitals in the province, where they will work for at least one year.

Urban medical workers will help train rural medical workers in treating frequently-occurring diseases, common diseases and diseases hard to be diagnosed and cured, with the purpose of improving medical treatment levels and beefing up the functioning of rural hospitals in planned immunity, prevention of disease and health care.

Li said, the pilot program in Gansu, the first and only one to be carried out in China this year, is not only of great significance in developing rural medical services in Gansu, but also vital in exploring ways for establishing an effective mechanism for China's medical services in rural areas.

The Gansu program constitutes part of a national program titled "10,000 physicians support rural health work," which was launched jointly by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Starting this year, the program will be gradually carried out in 600 hospitals in 592 state-listed poverty-stricken counties in central and western parts of China. The central government will fund the program.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2005)