As China strives to achieve prosperity for all of its citizens by 2020, it is making plans to ensure its disabled population is not left behind. The China Disabled Person's Federation, at a news briefing on Tuesday, said it will release a blueprint this year on how the country can lift its disabled poor out of poverty in a more precise way. "There are two additional requirements to fulfill the disabled population's basic needs: the development of a rehabilitation industry and the establishment of a barrier-free environment," said Lu Yong, the federation's vice president. China has an estimated 80 million disabled citizens. About 30 million are registered with the government. The federation, together with government agencies, will seek further improvements in the establishment of barrier-free environments in 2016, including those at airports and railway systems. Barrier-free design refers to structures that do not impede the use by those with special physical needs. The disabled population's welfare is a top goal of China's leadership, which included progress on such issues as part of the current five-year plan (2016-2020). First lady Peng Liyuan paid visits to disabled children last year. By Luo Wangshu (chinadaily.com.cn)

According to recent statistics in 2016, China has over 85 million disabled people, more than 50 million of them need long-term rehabilitation; Meanwhile, the aged population over 60 years old has reached to 185 million, and approximately 70 million of them need rehabilitation services. By 2050, the aged population will reach 400 million. Aged population has become one of the key social issues in the 21st century in China. Huge rehabilitation demands need the corresponding rehabilitation infrastructure construction and supply of resources. But in recent years, investment in rehabilitation of disabled persons from Disabled persons' federation was total 1.33 billion yuan, accounting for only 0.74% of the total public health investment, per capita rehabilitation funds only have 1.06 yuan, and the domestic rehabilitation of medical care is still concentrated in general hospitals, 56% of community health care hospitals don't have rehabilitation departments, only 16.7% of patients and 33.5% of disabled people have access to rehabilitation services. The people with functional disorder account for 10%-11% of the total population of China. After Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and the Yushu earthquake in 2010 and other serious natural disasters, Chinese government's attention to rehabilitation medical care has risen to an unprecedented level, and more and more attention has been dedicated to the field of rehabilitation cross-system, cross-sectoral comprehensive cooperation and development.

Createtime：2017-11-29 16:17:40 Release source：Samantha@Rehacare & Orthopedic China In the meeting of Chinese council on May 3rd 2017, Chinese government stress the importance of supporting social capital and resource to offer medical service, encouraging social organizations and companies to set up general clinics and independent institutions for medical exam and rehabilitation service. This attitude from the government gives a signal to rehabilitation industry. An insider from a rehabilitation institution express his confidence of rapid development in rehabilitation industry. He believes that revolution in medical payment system, especially revolution in controlling medical expense, is constraining medical institutions to improve efficiency and accelerate hierarchical diagnosis. Rehabilitation institutions and services are going to be a trend for effectively reducing medical expense. Aged Society with high demand in high-quality rehabilitation China is stepping into aged society quickly. Although Chinese economy grew in astonishing speed in the past five years, aging population in Chinese metropolis such as Beijing and Shanghai， are also growing quickly. Shanghai is now “the oldest city” in China. 30.2% of Shanghai residents, about 4.36 millions people, are aged over 60 by the end of 2016. Beijing aging residents is following Shanghai’s. According to data from China Rehabilitation Research Center, 500 residents aged over 60 are increased everyday in Beijing. It is estimated aged population will increased to over 30% of entire Beijing permanent resident population in 2030. However, rehabilitation industry is still in initial stage. Present rehabilitation institution and nursing service only serve to a few demand of aged people. It is estimated there will be 100 billion yuan value in rehabilitation industry in the year of 2022. Government policy reflects the high demand in rehabilitation. From June 30th 2016, rehabilitation items in social insurance system increased from 9 to 29. Other rehabilitation items in social insurance system around the country were also be retained. With motivation of policy, capital and technology, this Chinese hundred billion market is about to started. Contact us for more statistics in Chinese rehabilitation market: Samantha LIANG, jianyuliang029@126.com Follow up in Linkedin：https://www.linkedin.com/company/13448724/admin/updates/ Translated by Samantha LIANG and first published in Chinese on Wechat social media.