Mao Zedong’s Thought Of The Rural Medical Care And Health And Its Contemporary Significance

As people were suffering destitute livelihood in modern times, their lives and health could not be guaranteed, especially people in the vast rural areas who almost had no basic health care and medical security. Under the guidance of Marxism, the Chinese Communists, with Mao Zedong as the core, explored and established Mao Zedong’s Thought of the Rural Medical Care and Health. Its theoretical foundation was the related thoughts of classic Marxist writers and Chinese traditional medicine culture, and its practical foundation was the exploration of Communist Party of China during the periods of the Old Democratic Revolution, the New Democratic Revolution and the Socialist Construction. The Rural Medical Care and Health Thought of Mao Zedong put emphasis on rural areas and took prevention and its combination with curing as guiding principle of work. It constructed three-level medical network in rural areas to solve the poor access to medical service, and the rural cooperative medical care, which was the basis of three-level medical network implementation, was to solve the problem of high cost of medical service. The rural cooperative medical care was mainly implemented by barefoot doctor teams and the integrated Chinese and Western medicines provided them with convenient and cheap medicine sources. Mao Zedong’s Thought of the Rural Medical Care and Health adhered to the people-oriented, the mass line and solve practical problems. Under its guidance, the status of medical services in rural areas greatly improved, and it promoted the sinicization of Marxist health thought, enriched the theoretical system of Mao Zedong, and also made outstanding contributions to the world’s medical development.Of course, due to the restrictions of social and historical conditions and other factors at that time, Mao Zedong was insufficient in understanding the laws and national conditions of rural medical care and health development, resulting in many difficulties without effective solution in the practice process. Today’s medical work in rural areas should put emphasis on rural areas and took prevention and its combination with curing as guiding principle, do well in the new rural cooperative medical system, strengthen the construction of grass-roots hospitals and develop professional and technical medical teams in rural areas, and combine traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine.