BUILDING THE NATION THROUGH WOMEN'S HEALTH: MODERN ...

minor venereal illnesses (qing xing jibing 轻性疾病), promote maternal and child health (fuying
weisheng 妇婴卫生), train old-style midwives (chanpo jiesheng 产婆接生), give preventive
injections (inoculations, yufang zhushe 预防注射), promote public health, supervise and help in
the work of rural relief workers and old-style midwives, and gather the cun’s birth and death
reports. The budgets for the district dispensaries and hospitals were small and depended upon
the provincial and county financial situations at the time. The budgeted start-up costs for each
25-bed county hospital totaled 3,275 yuan, and operating expenses were allowed 1,430 yuan per
month, give or take depending upon the county’s size and financial situation. District
dispensaries were budgeted 850 yuan for start-up costs and operating expenses of 253 yuan per
month, also depending on the district’s size and financial conditions.
Experimental counties like Dingxian (定县) and Jiangningxian (Jiangning zizhi shiyan
xian 江宁自治实验县) incorporated rural health centers staffed with midwives and nurses whose
duties included pre- and postnatal care and submitting birth and death reports. By 1933
Jiangning had a “health demonstration area” (weisheng shiyan qu) and a public health clinic
(weishengyuan) five miles outside of Nanjing that was established to test the medical education
policy of creating model xian (county)-level rural health centers. Eventually every rural xian
was to have a public health clinic with a 30-50 bed hospital, a diagnostic laboratory, and a health
administration office. The hospital should staff five to seven nurses and two zhuchanshi, along
with a head doctor, laboratory and public health workers, and administrative personnel. The
monthly budget was 2,000 yuan. 238 Below the xian, “health stations” (weishengsuo 卫生所)
238 Neizhengbu, Neizheng nianjian, 218-19.
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