The Ministry of Health (MOH) released on May 8 the official Chinese health statistics for 2006.  Selected health statistics that are of direct interest to the pharmaceutical industry are reviewed and analyzed in the following.

The leading ten causes of death among urban and rural residents are shows in the following table:

Source:  MOH

 

Among urban residents, the death rates of cancers (malignant tumors), respiratory system diseases, endocrine nutritional and metabolism diseases and nervous system diseases went up in 2006 compared with the previous year. 

Among rural residents, the death rates of cancers (malignant tumors), heart diseases, injury and poisoning, endocrine nutritional and metabolism diseases and nervous system diseases went up in 2006 compared with 2005. 

The leading ten causes of death accounted for 90.4% and 92.3% respectively of the total deaths of urban and rural residents in 2006. 

The Ministry of Health reported that the total estimated Chinese healthcare expenditures for 2005 were CNY 865,990 million, up by 12.35% compared with 2004. Average per capita healthcare expenditures was CNY 662 in 2005, up from 584 in the previous year. Healthcare expenditures represent 4.73% of China’s GDP in 2005. 

Among the total healthcare expenditures in 2005, the government expenditures accounted for only 17.9%, while social expenditures took up 29.9% and personal expenditures represented 52.2%. 

Urban healthcare expenditures accounted for 72.6% of the total healthcare expenditures in 2005, while rural healthcare expenditures represented the rest 27.4%.

The average medical expenditure per outpatient visit to health department general hospitals rose 1.4% and the same figure for each impatient grew only 0.2% in 2006, according to the Ministry of Health.  In the last five years, the annual growth of outpatient and inpatient expenditures is between 7% and 9% as shown in the following table. 

Source: MOH

It can be seen from the above tablet that the share of drug expenditures in outpatient and inpatient medical expenditures has been falling in the past five years, largely as a result of government cost containment measures.

The average medical expenditures per outpatient in provincial level hospitals fell in 2006, while such expenditures increased moderately in other levels of hospitals.  The average medical expenditures per inpatient in all levels of hospitals fell, with the exception of prefecture-level hospitals which recorded a minor increase. 

The following table demonstrates the average medical expenditures per outpatient and inpatient in various levels of hospitals in 2006.

Source: MOH

Compared with 2005, the total number of patient visits to medical institutions in 2006 (excluding patient visits to clinics and rural community healthcare stations) rose by 141 million, among which 84 million were visits to hospitals and 26 million to rural health centers. The following table shows the outpatient visits to various types of medical institutions in 2006.

Source: MOH

Among total outpatient visits to general hospitals in 2006, internal medicine department, surgery department, OB/Gyn Department, Pediatric Department, TCM department and other departments accounted for 30.5%, 13.8%, 10.8%, 8.3% 6.0% and 30.5% respectively. 

The total number of medical institutions in China rose 3.2%. Specifically, the numbers of hospitals, community healthcare centers/stations and outpatient clinics have grown in 2006, while those of health centers, mother/child healthcare centers and specialized disease prevention centers fell slightly.

The following two tables demonstrate China’s healthcare resources in 2005 and 2006.

 

Source: MOH

Source: MOH

By the end of 2006, 1,451 rural counties had participated the new rural cooperative medical care system, which covered a total of 410 million rural residents.

China had 5,673 county level hospitals, 1,625 mother/child health centers and 1,726 county level disease prevention centers in 1,636 counties at the end of 2006. The country also had 40,000 township health centers employing 906,000 healthcare professionals. There were 609,000 village clinics with 104,000 licensed physicians, 906,000 village doctors and 51,000 health technicians.

County level hospitals had 300 million outpatient visits and enrolled 15.8 million inpatients in 2006, an increase of 20 million outpatient visits and 1.5 million inpatients over 2005.

There were 23,000 community healthcare centers/stations at the end of 2006, receiving 81.5 million outpatient visits and 0.43 million inpatients during the year.  Compared with 2005, the number of community healthcare centers increased by 5,528.