Scorn that greeted health claim shows ills arise from ambiguity

A NEWS RELEASE issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission claiming that "500 million people have access to family doctor services in China" has been met with doubt and scorn, as the figure does not match people's experience. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

After the news release became the news, the commission explained the figure was a total sum of those submitted by local public health departments, and that a "family doctor" refers to doctors and nurses working in residential communities and doctors working in local public hospitals.

Although the commission's response is timely and to the point, it should learn the lesson that the information it discloses must be free of ambiguity to avoid any misunderstanding.

Instead of bragging about how many people it served, the commission should have highlighted how it will improve on that－as 800 million people are yet to be included in its service net－and how hard it will try to enhance the medical care services for the people that are already covered.

With this in mind, the commission should avoid using words and phrases that carry a popular perception such as "family doctor" in its news releases if that perception does not pertain to the reality. It should always use the right words and phrases and use them correctly in their appropriate context.

It is timely for the commission to point out that there remains a big gap between China and developed countries in terms of the coverage and quality of community-based medical care services, which is conducive to providing better health services to the public by offering people easier access to care, improving the medical environment, balancing medical resources and reasonably controlling the medical expenses. It is only in practice that the benefits of this kind can be fully stimulated and presented.

All government departments should heed the lessons of this incident, as information disclosure is a conventional administrative practice intended to enhance the transparency of the government and promote good governance, rather than make the public confused.