City promotes early cancer screening

Shanghai will try to detect at least 40 percent of common cancers at an early stage by 2030 as it promotes early screening, diagnosis and treatment, authorities said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The target is part of the city’s latest health promotion action plan which will be released soon and which includes 100 measures and 18 special programs, covering all areas related to health, from diet and physical fitness to smoking control, chronic disease management and improved medical services.

Vice Mayor Zong Ming said the city will carry out health education for all and promote a healthy life style. It will try to reduce the consumption of salt, edible oil, sugar and alcohol to fight the growth in obesity and chronic diseases. 

It will also build more sports facilities to increase the average sports area for each citizen to 2.8 square meters and enhance enforcement of the smoking ban to reduce the rate of smoking to less than 18 percent by 2030.

It will also build up psychological intervention systems to handle problems such as sleeplessness, depression and dysphoria. It will promote physiological health knowledge and emergency treatment skills to various groups, including the young and the elderly.

It will also enhance life education among students and assess students’ health in schools.

With myopia one of the biggest challenges for students’ health in China, Shanghai will also act to reduce the rate of young people suffering from the condition by 0.5 to 1 percentage points each year.

Ni Minjing, deputy director of the Shanghai Education Commission, said it has cooperated with health authorities to work out guidance for schools and families to improve lighting for children and proper use of digital equipment. It has also required schools to arrange more PE classes and outdoor exercises.

With an aging population, the city will also add more geriatric medical services in hospitals. It aims to have 90 percent of major hospitals and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals provide such services.

To enhance health services, the city will try to make sure all citizens are covered by its “family doctor” scheme that allows residents to sign up with a doctor at local community health centers, and choose another district-level and city-level hospital for specialist services.

Shanghai will also promote the health service industry in the city, encouraging social investment in medical areas, developing frontier medical services and traditional Chinese medicine services and speeding up the development of bio-medical technologies. By 2030, it aims to have the health service sector contribute about 7.5 percent to the city's GDP.

It will also become an R&D, manufacturing and service outsourcing center for high-end biomedical products in the Asia-Pacific region, and a health technology innovation center of global influence.

It will also share quality medical resources with other places in the Yangtze River Delta region.