Caring for our health

Caring for our health
Our health care system has benefited from substantive investment in recent decades. As a result, we
now have 2.2 hospital beds for every 1,000 people, world-class medical specialists with average life
expectancy rising from 66 years to 74 years in the past three decades. We are determined to optimize
and better utilize the capacity of our hospitals and health care centers, and enhance the quality of our
preventive and therapeutic health care services. The public sector will focus on promoting preventive
care, on reducing infectious diseases and in encouraging citizens to make use of primary care as a
first step. It will deepen collaboration and integration between health and social care, as well as
supporting families to provide home care when necessary for their relatives. The public sector will
focus on its planning, regulatory and supervisory roles in health care. We intend to provide our health
care through public corporations both to enhance its quality and to prepare for the benefits of
privatization in the longer term. We will work towards developing private medical insurance to
improve access to medical services and reduce waiting times for appointments with specialists and
consultants. Our doctors will be given better training to improve treatment for chronic diseases such
as heart disease, diabetes and cancer that threaten our nation’s health.