Medical service unity: an effective approach for medical care in rural areas in China

Context: Medical care in rural China has long suffered because of a concentration of medical resources in major hospitals in cities. The patients in rural areas thus do not have affordable access to quality medical services. To tackle such issues, a tiered medical scheme (TMS) was promoted by the Chinese State Council in 2015. It divides hospitals into three tiers and encourages collaborations among different tiers within a region in order to...