Expecting parents and other citizens can expect better public
services, a top health official said yesterday.
Acts have been adopted to decrease birth defects and monitor the
side effects of contraceptive methods and equipment, director of
the National Population and Family Planning Commission Zhang
Weiqing said at a working conference in Beijing.
The commission will also train more professional consultants to
advise couples on ensuring babies' health and using contraceptives,
he added.
The commission cited practices by health authorities in Dalian,
Liaoning Province, as exemplary.
More than 1.26 million women in Dalian have enjoyed free
gynecological health checkups funded by the municipal population
and family planning commission.
The commission distributed about 1 million pamphlets on family
medicine to local households, and nearly all of the city's pregnant
women were given free nutritional supplements.
In addition, 8,000 migrant workers in Dalian received free
physical checkups, and those with reproductive organ diseases were
treated for free, the commission said.
Over the past two years, the city has spent more than 22 million
yuan (US$2.93 million) to provide free contraceptive medicine and
equipment for its migrant workers and unemployed.
(China Daily December 7, 2007)