Barefoot Doctors

[The Vegan Marxist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YvwVFC-TJY

I just got done watching this documentary on the Barefoot Doctors that are located in China, & I've got to say that I'm somewhat impressed, & kind of surprised that I've never heard of them. The reason I'm putting this on the learning section of the forum is because I want to know what all of you think of this personally, do you feel this is an operable use of medicinal distribution, & do you feel this could be a valuable way of giving out medication when we start creating communes, or through communes that exist already?

[bcbm]

here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor) is some basic info from wikipedia. seems like a very interesting and successful program. do you have an idea how it could be transformed to serve urban centers?

[The Vegan Marxist]

here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor) is some basic info from wikipedia. seems like a very interesting and successful program. do you have an idea how it could be transformed to serve urban centers?

I'm not sure how it would operate under urban areas. Technically, France has something similar to that, but it's a mobile doctor where, if in need of medical assistance, then they come to your house to help you. There's some similarity there, but sort of not. And thanks for the wiki.

[RED DAVE]

It's fascinating that as part of the restoration of private capitalism in China, the current government phased the program out almost overnight in the 1980s.


The barefoot doctor system was abolished in 1981 with the end of the commune system of agricultural cooperatives. The new economic policy in China promoted a shift from collectivism to individual production by the family unit.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor#cite_note-mcconnell-2) This shift caused a privatization of the medical system, which could not sustain the barefoot doctors.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor#cite_note-mcconnell-2) The barefoot doctors were given the option to take a national exam, if they passed they became village doctors, if not they would be village health aides.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor

RED DAVE

[The Vegan Marxist]

It's fascinating that as part of the restoration of private capitalism in China, the current government phased the program out almost overnight in the 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor

RED DAVE

Yeah, that is kind of weird that it was taken out as fast as something new came along. I wonder how it effected those that were barefoot doctors...

[The Vegan Marxist]

But still, I want to see a more thorough discussion on it, for it shows a policy that was quite successful during China's rise, & as pointed out, fell as soon the country, itself, fell as well. Could we bring back this policy in huge states such as America, England, France, etc.? If so, how? If not, then why not?

[el_chavista]

This is from http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/maos-cultural-revolution-pt-5-deep-among-the-people/ a really good serial articles about the Chinese Cultural Revolution.


Health Care and Barefoot Doctors

Prior to the Cultural Revolution, health care resources—doctors, hospital facilities and money—were concentrated in the cities. This system left hundreds of millions of peasants with rudimentary medical care, and it impeded the flow of advanced medical knowledge back to the villages.

One of the most dynamic innovations of the Cultural Revolution was the system of “barefoot doctors” that helped narrow the gap in health services between rural and urban areas. By the mid-1970s, more than a million of these paramedics, four times as many as in 1965, were working in the countryside. Many of them were educated urban youth who were part of the movement “down to the villages.”
The first group of 28 barefoot doctors, trained by Shanghai doctors in 1968 at Chiangchen People’s Commune, set a pioneering example for the country. Their guidelines were to serve the countryside, to place prevention of diseases first, and to combine mental and manual labor—”calluses on hands, mud on feet, medicine kit on shoulder, poor and lower-middle peasants in mind.”

One of the first steps taken by these new medical workers was to train disease-prevention health workers from the peasants, enabling each production brigade to have its own health center. In one brigade, the barefoot doctors devoted a third to a half of their time to farm work. This not only created a medical corps with strong ties to the peasants, it enabled brigade doctors to help develop a rice strain that had high yields and eliminated disease-bearing mosquitoes. Finally, upon the recommendations of the peasants they worked with, the commune sent five barefoot doctors to medical school to pursue more advanced studies.[23]
Urban hospitals and medical schools turned their attention to the countryside, establishing medical centers on communes and providing doctors to staff them. A commune hospital or clinic served two purposes: as a treatment center for seriously ill patients, and as a training center for barefoot doctors and midwives. After an initial training course of six months to a year, they would return for follow-up courses during the slack season. They continued to work in the fields and were paid by their communes.

The tasks of these new doctors went far beyond the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. They administered vaccinations, demonstrated the correct use of pesticides, introduced new sanitation methods, and taught mothers about nutrition and child care. In addition to helping rural women to give birth at home, midwives were trained to diagnose a difficult birth early enough to bring the mother to a commune hospital. At the rural hospitals and clinics visited by the CCAS delegation, medicine was free. [24]

During the same years, Red Medical Teams, an urban and industrial version of the barefoot doctors, were established. After a basic course and recurrent follow-up sessions, they staffed factory clinics and cared for the health of their fellow workers.

The training of doctors and medical staff at urban hospitals also went through major changes during the Cultural Revolution. In medical schools, the program of study was shortened from six years to three years, followed by an internship of one and a half years. The curriculum was revised to place more emphasis on preventative medicine. Most graduates were generalists, not specialists. They would spend a good part of their lives in the countryside as part of mobile teams, or they resettled there.[25]

In addition, many traditional forms of medicine, such as herbal remedies and acupuncture anesthesia, were widely used during the Cultural Revolution. Research institutes studied Chinese medicine to put it on a scientific and standardized basis, while many hospitals began to combine Chinese and Western medicine into an integrated system for the treatment of illness.

The end of the Cultural Revolution led to a rapid and drastic decline in the health care system in the countryside. The barefoot doctor system was abandoned by Deng’s regime in 1981. Doctors set up their own private practices, making medical treatment well beyond the means of most villagers. After the collectives were dissolved in 1983, health care insurance disappeared in the countryside. [26]

Radical social transformations in education, health care, culture, industry, agriculture, the position of women, and collective, internationalist values were essential to achieving the aims of the Cultural Revolution. Still, the course that the Cultural Revolution took varied tremendously across China’s huge territory. The revolutionary transformations described above were uneven, and were not implemented over a long enough period to take firm root. Particularly as they came under attack by rightist forces, the “socialist new things” did not always survive, even prior to the revisionist coup in 1976 that brought the Cultural Revolution to an end.

[RedStarOverChina]

It's unfortunate that these barefoot doctors are virtually forgotten about in China, and the word itself even has a negative tone as it is associated with Culture Revolutions, un-professionalism, etc.

I personally know two people that used to be barefoot doctors. And they are practically the only ones realizing what the whole thing was---a humanitarian effort that had transformed China on an unimaginable scale.


And their efforts and success have been tossed into the garbage bin. :(

[The Vegan Marxist]

It's unfortunate that these barefoot doctors are virtually forgotten about in China, and the word itself even has a negative tone as it is associated with Culture Revolutions, un-professionalism, etc.

I personally know two people that used to be barefoot doctors. And they are practically the only ones realizing what the whole thing was---a humanitarian effort that had transformed China on an unimaginable scale.


And their efforts and success have been tossed into the garbage bin. :(

Those two people you know should help form a march in demands for better medical attention. If anyone could do it, they could. They are personal witnesses of a revolutionary medical field that transformed China through grassroots liberation.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Found this piece of Chinese propaganda artwork on the Barefoot Doctors, & thought it was kind of neat:

http://i47.tinypic.com/v5keia.jpg

[Invincible Summer]

That documentary was awesome. It is probably one of the most objective, non-judgmental pieces of journalism I've watched in a long time. If I could rep you more than once for sharing the video I'd do it