Study On The Barefoot Doctors In Rural Areas(1968-1983)

"Barefoot Doctors" are the non-full time primary healthcare personnel of the production team in our country’s rural people’s commune as well as an important team in rural medical and healthcare field from the end of1960s to the beginning of1980s.In the early years after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the rural sanitation condition was not optimistic and lack of doctors and medicines was very common; facing such a situation, Mao Zedong, the supreme leader of China at that time issued a forceful health instruction, which promoted the large-scale transfer of medical and health resources to the rural. Meanwhile, because the barefoot doctors themselves possessed a unique advantage of being able to be supported in countryside and its localization, they were able to emerge and exist in China rural areas. The development process of barefoot doctors was influenced by the then national macro-policies and closely related to the cooperative medical system of that time.With regard to the team building of barefoot doctors, four aspects were mainly considered—selection, training, assessment, and pay. In the case of Zongyang County, the selection criteria just played a directional role at that time, while multiple factors were taken into consideration in actual operation; the dominant training forces were from hospitals of communes and districts of that time. And during that time, barefoot doctors generally enjoyed considerably favorable treatment. As for the assessment, the efforts given to it were inadequate in the early stage, and the assessment efforts were not strengthened until in the later stage; as for the pay of barefoot doctors, work-points payment system was implemented at that time. However, the granting ways varied among different production teams, thus a field microscopic analysis needs to be conducted.The main routine work of barefoot doctors is to prevent and treat rural common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases as well as use and promote new delivery method. As for the treatment of diseases, barefoot doctors played a role mainly in some minor ailments and injuries. With regard to the medication and treatment method, western medicines are mainly applied with equipments being extremely simple. On disease prevention, they mainly dealt with the common epidemics, infectious diseases and endemics in those areas. Doubtlessly, in the specific prevention activities, they would also encounter many difficulties which had to be overcome by themselves with great effort. The new delivery method was mainly undertaken by women barefoot doctors and further efforts had to be made in the extent of its use and spread. Constrained by various factors, the work they bore at that time are relatively worse than those of today in effects and standardization.Barefoot doctors enjoyed all kinds of conveniences brought by such an occupation in their daily lives. In the aspects like family life quality, social status, marriage and children career, they had significant advantages over other general common commune members, which made them considerably satisfied. It is precisely because of this that this career became the target people had been competing for. Nevertheless, as a group, barefoot doctors have their own positive roles and limitations; therefore, they need to be evaluated dialectically and given a correct historical position.