Datong, Changzhi, and Yuncheng in North China's Shanxi province were recently included in a list of pilot cities for the construction of integrated urban medical groups jointly announced by six national authorities.

The urban medical groups are responsible for providing integrated and continuous medical and health services for residents, such as disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, nutrition, rehabilitation, nursing, and general health management. 

Such groups consist of leading hospitals, which are Grade-3 comprehensive hospitals at district and prefecture levels, as well as member institutions.

Each group should allocate at least one third of its outpatient registration quota and a quarter of the inpatient beds in member institutions for primary medical and health institutions and family doctor service teams. 

Residents who have signed up for family doctor services and have been referred by primary medical institutions can enjoy special priority in terms of treatment, checkups and hospitalization. 

The group is also responsible for coordinating the construction of resource-sharing centers in medical testing, medical imaging, ECG diagnosis, pathology, and disinfection supply. This will result in mutual recognition of the inspection results within the group, establish a remote medical cooperation network covering all units of the medical consortium, and improve the allocation and efficiency of medical resources. 

According to the National Health Commission, by 2025 these pilot cities are required to have established integrated urban medical groups with a more scientific management system, a more complete operating mechanism, optimized service models, a system that matches the supply and demand of medical resources, and can record successful experiences that are worth being promoted and replicated across the country.