Residents’ Health: Government’s Responsibility

As a Co-president city of METROPOLIS and its Regional Secretary for Asia Pacific, the City of Guangzhou has recently made a contribution to the WHO - UN HABITAT joint report “Hidden Cities: unmasking and overcoming health inequities in urban settings”, answering to a previous call from METROPOLIS and WHO Center for Health Development.

With a large urban population of over 16 million, the City of Guangzhou is under enormous pressure in its healthcare service provision. To tackle with this challenge, proactive measures have been taken and concrete results have been accomplished through the joint efforts of both public and private sectors. In a message titled “Residents’ Health: Government’s Responsibility”, Mayor CHEN Jianhua shares with the international community Guangzhou’s attempt to improve its public healthcare services for the well-being of its citizens. The Mayor’s message includes the following aspects:

“In response to the global healthy city strategy advocated by World Health Organization, and with the objective of cultivating a healthy environment, building a healthy society and developing a healthy community, Guangzhou has set up five major public medical and health service systems covering the whole city, namely medical and health services, residents medical insurance, major illness prevention and control, health emergency rescue and food safety supervision and administration, which have effectively narrowed the gap between different social strata in terms of healthcare provision. The ability to provide public healthcare services has been greatly improved, and the average life span of urban population now reaches 80.6-year-old”. Said Mayor Chen Jianhua.