Rural China struggles with medical access amid aging population challenges
Date
1/20/2025 7:47:03 AM
(MENAFN) David Wei's heart-wrenching ordeal illustrates the severe difficulties faced by rural residents in accessing timely medical care. Last year, the 60-year-old carried his nephew on his back for 3 kilometers after the younger man suffered a heart attack. He staggered along a rural road under repair in China's Guangxi region while waiting for an ambulance, which took 90 minutes to arrive from the nearest city.
Although the road to their village has since been repaired, a delay in calling an ambulance during his nephew’s second cardiac arrest meant help arrived too late. "If we'd lived in the city, he might have had a chance," said Wei, sitting in his modest two-story home in Duan Yao County.
Such experiences highlight the healthcare challenges in China's rural areas, home to an aging population of 120 million people aged 60 or older. Experts warn that China's development model faces a crossroads: significantly increasing investment in rural healthcare and pensions or prioritizing industrial upgrades and urbanization to drive growth.
For aging communities like Wei’s, the urgency of improved medical access is becoming more critical with each passing year.
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