Being trained how to measure blood pressure during a healthcare course initiated by BSP, a subsidiary of Germany-based Bayer Schering Pharma AG. The program is one of the biggest community welfare investments by international pharmaceutical firms aimed at improving health services in western China. [Provided to China Daily]
Social responsibility program boosting healthcare in West ChinaBEIJING - Bayer Schering Pharma (BSP) efforts to address unmet medical needs in China is reflected partly by its corporate social responsibility initiatives to upgrade the capability of healthcare professionals in cooperation with the government's "Go West" policy.
Initiated by BSP, the pharmaceutical subsidiary of Germany-based Bayer Schering Pharma AG, and the Ministry of Health, the five-year 20 million yuan project aims to train 10,000 rural doctors in county-level hospitals in Central and West China.
"Go West" is one of the biggest community welfare investments among international pharmaceutical companies aimed at improving health services in Western China.
"We're happy to see that when the doctors are back to their own counties, they applied the knowledge to their daily work and got very good results," said Chris H. Lee, head of Bayer Schering Pharma China/Hong Kong and Bayer Healthcare China.
To date, the training sessions have been held in Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Hainan provinces and Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions. This year alone, "Go West" will extend its footprints to the rest of the regions and provide more comprehensive training.
In November 2008, BSP, with the China Association for Employment Promotion under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, launched a health and safety training program for rural and urban migrant workers.
The program complements the government's policies to protect rural-urban migrants' rights and interests. In recent years, the government has paid attention to the protection of rural-urban migrants' rights and interests via a "Spring Breeze" project initiated by the ministry. It's a nationwide project to provide training, consulting and legal support to migrant workers before they return to their jobs after the spring festival.
The program provides employment training in health and safety for 30,000 surplus rural laborers over three years. The program educates migrant workers on health, safety and employment, with an aim to increase self-awareness about infectious and occupational diseases and to cultivate good living and working habits among migrant workers.
The program was rolled out to eight cities and counties last year. It experienced big turnouts especially in some provinces with high levels of labor importing, such as Shandong.
"We're happy to see many people have benefited from our training programs," said Lee.
In addition, BSP is also working with the Ministry of Health to promote its China Community Health Promotion program, an initiative to enhance the standard as well as the capacity of community-related medical services.
BSP is focused on chronic disease prevention and intervention in China with its "Health Cabin" and "Bayer Health Promotion Cup" community competition. These projects were initiated based on the real needs of the community and the healthcare providers.
"We saw the serious condition of chronic diseases in China and realized health education was crucial to raise awareness of the risks of chronic diseases," said Lee. The two projects were based on BSP's concept of "Rooted in Community, Serve the People", which translates to a commitment to help more patients to get rid of the burden of chronic diseases.
Coupled with China's booming economic development, an aging population, rapid urbanization and the adoption of Western lifestyles have contributed to the changing profile of the nation's disease burden. China has become one of the countries that have the most number of patients with chronic disease.
That has led to the creation of the "Health Cabin", an extension of the "Diabetes Cabin" launched in 2006. It has been set up in more than 70 community health service centers nationwide to educate the Chinese on health-related issues. Various activities for local residents include a community knowledge competition about diabetes. It has been successfully held for nine years, reaching more than 60 communities from 14 first- and second-tier cities, with a direct benefit to 100,000 local residents.
