Worried about the health of the people
Learn Enlai. 
During the war years, I have been engaged in health work in the army, and I have not had much contact with Comrade ***, but his name, like *** and other leading comrades, has a huge attraction for me like a magnet. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, after 5 years of study in the Soviet Union, I was transferred to work in the ** department, and since then I have been working under the direct leadership of Comrade ***. Whether it was when I was the Deputy Minister of Health and the Deputy Minister of the Second Ministry of Machinery, or when I was the Minister of Health, I had the privilege of having many contacts with *** and listening to his teachings with my own ears. Therefore, I have personal feelings about the prime minister's high morality, conscientious and responsible spirit, rigorous work attitude, and scientific work methods. The work of our Ministry of Health is one of the departments that we have devoted the most effort to during our lifetime. (1) *As Prime Minister, I was surprised when I first came into contact with him, and I was so familiar with the work of the Ministry of Health and the cadres of the Ministry of Health, that I gradually understood the mystery. Whenever the Ministry of Health asks for instructions, reports on its work, and sends documents to the Prime Minister, his usual practice is to bring the members of the Party Group of the Ministry of Health to his office for a meeting. There were very few people in attendance, and he presided over the meeting, bringing only a secretary to take notes. It can be seen that the Prime Minister has not only carefully read the document before the meeting, but has also considered the issues raised in the document. But he is never in a hurry to draw conclusions, but always asks the situation first, and then asks questions for everyone to answer. Despite the democratic and harmonious atmosphere of the meeting, everyone could not help but feel nervous in front of the Prime Minister. This is because the Prime Minister asked very detailed questions and asked very specific questions, so he only answered the questions when he had done research and understood the situation. At this point, the Prime Minister not only listened attentively, but also encouraged the speaker to continue. On the other hand, if he does not understand the situation and speaks in vain, he will ask the spokesman to stop and listen to others. In the end, the Prime Minister made a summary based on everyone's opinions and his own considerations. I have attended many meetings convened by the premier himself, such as to discuss the prevention and control of diseases that endanger the people's health, the issue of putting the focus of medical and public health work on the rural areas, the study of the prevention and control of malaria, schistosomiasis, and other medicines, and the study of the production of contraceptive drugs. Under the leadership of the premier, a special team was also organized to study and solve the prevention and development problems of chronic bronchitis and epidemic encephalitis, and instructed that special personnel should be set up to study occupational diseases. Every time we participated in the meeting, we gained a lot, not only to have a clear answer to the questions we asked for instructions, but also to solve the thorny problems encountered in the work. Over time, I have come to realize that this is an excellent way for the prime minister to understand the situation, inspect cadres, train cadres, and educate cadres to overcome bureaucracy. The reply of a person who does not understand the business and the suffering of the masses will never satisfy the prime minister, and it will be even more difficult for the bureaucrats to fool themselves in front of the prime minister. He convened such a meeting in itself to conduct investigation and research. Through a meeting, he not only got a comprehensive grasp of the work of the Ministry of Health in stages, but also conducted a strict inspection of the work situation, work attitude, and ability of our leading cadres, and urged us to study Marxism, constantly go deep into reality, conduct investigation and study, and do a good job.
2) Anyone who has come into contact with the Prime Minister can tell many touching and heartfelt examples of his meticulous concern for the people. What impressed me in this regard was an incident that took place before the third atomic bomb in our country. At two o'clock that night, I suddenly received a call from the Prime Minister's office, asking me to go to a meeting immediately. After the meeting began, the prime minister said: "According to the original plan, a nuclear test will be carried out at 5 o'clock in the morning today, ** the third atomic bomb, but after I saw the weather forecast materials, I found that the current wind direction has changed from the original forecast wind direction, so it is possible that ** dust will drift over the continent for a longer time, so I invited you to come and study whether the test can be carried out as originally planned?" "With only a few hours left before the scheduled test time, there was an intense discussion. In my speech, I introduced the monitoring materials of the US nuclear test on Bikinia Island, the monitoring materials of the pollution of China's fishing grounds in the South China Sea, and the monitoring materials of the impact of the Soviet Union's nuclear test on the populations and sheep in northern Xinjiang, and suggested that the tonnage and dust drifting time of this test may be similar to the situation after the tests conducted by the United States and the Soviet Union. The Prime Minister immediately said: "These two investigations are very informative, and if you have no other opinions, we will decide to proceed with the original plan." The prime minister then said that despite this, in order to ensure the safety of the people in the vicinity of the experimental zone, we must take strict preventive measures. The comrades present told the prime minister that the masses in the areas concerned had been informed that they were ready. The Prime Minister solicited the opinions of the comrades present, and at the same time analyzed the possible contamination of water sources and vegetables, and proposed specific measures. Subsequently, the premier immediately asked the secretary to inform Gansu Province and relevant departments of the discussion at the meeting to do a good job in preventive work. Although the prime minister is in a high position, he never decides issues arbitrarily. As prime minister, he has every right to decide on issues, and even at critical moments, he still insists on listening to the opinions of lower-level cadres and analyzing and solving problems with a conscientious and responsible, truth-seeking approach, and scientific attitude. In addition, the conduct of nuclear tests at that time not only marked the level of development of science and technology in our country, but more importantly, had great political significance. But I realized from the attitude of the Prime Minister at the time that if it was believed that the nuclear test would affect the safety of the population, he would make the decision to stop it instead of proceeding. The premier's spirit of being a public servant who puts the interests of the masses first and never forgets the people is always worthy of our inheritance and development.
3) After I became Minister of Health, the Prime Minister spoke to me in early 1965 and gave me a comprehensive directive on health. I feel that these instructions of the Prime Minister are a strategic decision to promote the development of China's public health undertakings and improve the people's health standards after careful consideration in accordance with China's national conditions. If we can continue to implement the plan as envisaged by the Prime Minister without the interference and destruction of the 10-year catastrophe, our health industry will develop greatly. The prime minister has always placed great emphasis on the principle of putting prevention first, and the first issue in this conversation is the issue of preventing and controlling diseases that seriously endanger the health of the masses. In his speech, he made a detailed analysis of the incidence and prevalence of intestinal infectious diseases, plague, and schistosomiasis at that time, and warned us to conscientiously prevent and control them and not to slacken our efforts. He asked us to draw up a plan for which diseases to eradicate in the third five-year plan and in the next 15 years. On the issue of planning, he instructed: In order to break the framework of pre-determined figures in the past, we should first make strategic arrangements, see how many things we should do first, and then make specific arrangements according to the state's financial, human, and material resources. In planning, it is necessary to highlight the key points, do what we can, and concentrate our forces on fighting a war of annihilation. It is necessary to advocate new technologies, self-reliance, and diligence and thrift in all undertakings. We must dare to break the old box, we must liberate ourselves from the annual plan, and we must oppose the frivolous philosophy. During his lifetime, the prime minister had been the director of the ** Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, and he was very concerned about mobilizing the masses to participate in the patriotic health campaign. He proposed that, in light of the situation in various localities, mass sanitation campaigns should be carried out four times a year on a large scale and several times on a small scale. Make the most of the power of your students. Newspapers should be accompanied by propaganda to promote the development of health campaigns. It is necessary to enable the masses to understand some hygiene knowledge through participating in the patriotic public health campaign, for example, in places where brain flow occurs, and to make the masses understand the simple and easy-to-implement preventive measures such as frequently drying quilts and opening windows. At the same time, it is also necessary to advocate physical exercise and enhance physical fitness. Now some comrades are not in good health and often get sick, mainly because of lack of exercise. The health department should carry out publicity, explain the reasoning, and engage in some simple and easy-to-implement exercise methods; With the sports committee as the mainstay and the health department cooperating, it is necessary to constantly sum up experience, and not to stir up teachers and engage in formalism. Don't fill in the form to count any numbers, what's the use of just making some numbers for the health campaign? The Prime Minister stressed that the focus of the rural sanitation campaign is "manure management, water management". He also said that the vice premier has instructed the agricultural sector to do a good job in manure management in combination with the production of manure, and the Ministry of Health should start from doing a good job in sanitation and cooperate with the agricultural sector.
The Prime Minister has always been concerned about the cause of Chinese medicine in our country. When talking about traditional Chinese medicine, he said earnestly: "Chinese and Western medicine have their own strengths, and we should emphasize unity, advocate mutual learning, learn from each other's strengths, and improve together." We must not engage in one kind of doctor and one kind of medicine, but must follow the road of integrating traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. **It has been more than 20 years since the creation of a unified new medicine and new pharmacy in our country was proposed, and the Ministry of Health should seriously grasp the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. Although some people have different worldviews, they have real talent and experience, and they can cure diseases, so they have to play their role. The Prime Minister is also very concerned about family planning. Although family planning was still a very sensitive issue at the time, he still strongly supported it in his conversations. He pointed out that there should be several stipulations that pilot projects should be carried out first in cities and densely populated rural areas, and that at present the main focus is to grasp the cities, and the rural areas should be carried out in a step-by-step and focused manner in conjunction with the sending of doctors to the rural areas. The health departments should grasp the technical guidance and training of cadres, and they should also formulate a few rules. Family planning is a major matter, and it is necessary to have a plan and do a good job of it. The Prime Minister has repeatedly stressed the need to continue research into the production of safer and more effective contraceptives.
In this conversation, the prime minister talked most about how to do a good job in rural health. He has carefully considered both short-term measures and long-term deployments. In view of the general shortage of medical personnel in rural areas of China at that time, he advocated the support of urban medical personnel for rural health work. He said: This is an important way to improve the level of medical services in China's rural areas. On the one hand, urban medical personnel can prevent and cure diseases for the peasant masses, and on the other hand, they should help rural grassroots health personnel improve their technical level so that medical and public health work can take root in the rural areas. Among the urban medical personnel, except for those who are old and sick and cannot go down for other reasons, at least 80 medical personnel can go down in turn, and about five years, they can be roughly rotated, and the content and methods can be continuously improved. It is necessary to mobilize party members, young people, and advanced elements to take the lead in going to mountainous and remote areas. The Prime Minister also instructed that the development of rural health services must speed up the training of doctors in rural areas. To do this, it is necessary to change the training methodology. Some three-year schools can be run, and they can be divided into two types: one for high school students and the other for junior high school students. Students can be recruited from the cities, or they can come from the countryside and return to the rural areas, and it is necessary to break the old pattern and make the form of education suitable for the needs of the development of rural health work. In addition, it is necessary to set up some research institutes and select some personnel who have been tempered by practical work and who have a relatively good level of political ideology and technology to further their studies and improve. If you have experience in practical work, you can conduct special research and advanced study on a certain issue, and the time can be several months, half a year, and it can be determined according to the specific situation. The existing rural doctors (Chinese medicine or Western medicine) should be improved in a planned and step-by-step manner. In short, the training of rural health personnel should be strengthened, but formulaic and uniformity should be opposed. The Prime Minister also stressed the need to gradually establish a medical network at and above the district level, communes and production teams. It is necessary to properly solve the problem of remuneration for the health workers in the production team, otherwise the health team at the grassroots level in the rural areas will be unstable.
Looking back on the course of the development of China's rural public health undertakings, I feel that although they have been seriously affected by the erroneous tendencies of the "leftists" and the "Gang of Four" have even been engaged in public health work for no reason under the pretext of "putting the focus of medical and public health work in the rural areas," thus causing huge losses to China's public health work. Practice has proved that the idea of developing China's rural health undertakings is scientific and has important practical and historical significance. Following the direction of the first guidance, after years of efforts, China's rural health cause has achieved gratifying results, and has received international attention and praise.
** The care for health is meticulous, his instructions are extensive, and what I have mentioned is only a drop in the ocean. It is difficult for my article to cover the many contributions of the Prime Minister, and I cannot finish writing my memories of ***. I would like to write down the two or three things that I personally felt, and merge them into the sea of memories of the whole party and the whole country for the premier, and commemorate and learn from the premier with all of you.
[Qian Xinzhong].
Note: Authorized to publish, this article has been selected and included in the "Chang'an Street Reading Club" theoretical learning platform (People's **, People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, Beijing**, Xinhuanet, Central**, National Party Media Information Public Platform, Horizon, Beijing Time, Surging Government Affairs, Phoenix News Client "Chang'an Street Reading Club" column synchronization), * must be uniformly marked "Chang'an Street Reading Club" theoretical learning platform source and author.
Editor-in-charge: Xue Linxi; Preliminary review: Cheng Ziqian, Chen Jiani; Re-examiner: Li Yufan
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