Health Sciences

China Health Program

Alumni

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The China Health Chapter of La Trobe University alumni was officially launched in Beijing on May 7, 2010. More than 200 graduates, most of whom are senior managers in health care industry and leading the health reform in China, gathered in Beijing from all over China to attend the 10-year anniversary celebration of the Master of Health Administration program. More than 500 Chinese health managers have now graduated from La Trobe.

A high-powered Sino-Australian Forum on Health System Reform was organised by the University in Beijing on May 8-9, 2010, with support from the Australian China Council, the National Institute of Health Economics (through an AusAID funded project), the Chinese Institute of Hospital Administration, Peking University, and Harbin Medical University. Some 500 delegates – including senior officials from China’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, AusAID and the UK Department for International Development – attended the event. The forum attracted wide media interest, including Chinese Central Television and Xinhua News Agency. It also saw the launch by Australia’s Ambassador to China, Dr Geoff Raby, of a new book on health policy. Published in Chinese and English by Peking University Medical Press, Health Policy in and for China, is edited by La Trobe Public Health staff, Professor Vivian Lin and Dr David Legge, Peking University’s Professor Guo Yan and Harbin Medical University’s Professor Wu Qunhong. It features contributions from China, Australia, the UK and the USA.

Despite vast differences between Australia and China, the two nations face some similar challenges when it comes to health policy. Both countries are working to reduce gaps in access to health service and health outcomes between rich and poor, urban and rural, indigenous and nonindigenous people. ‘Universal coverage of medical care services, co-ordination between primary care and hospital care, cost containment, and safety and quality of care are priorities on the health reform agenda in both countries.