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Barkhor, president of Hongxing Township Hospital in Zoige county, Sichuan province, which employs traditional Tibetan therapy, checks a patient on Dec 16. Local hospitals are short of doctors and facilities.
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Ethnic Tibetan doctor Atra, 75, arrived at the hospital at about 10 am, put on his white uniform, and started checking the patients waiting in line. He retired 15 years ago but still offers a voluntary service.
Atra, former president of the Hongxing Township Hospital in Zoige county of Sichuan province, said the Tibetan-medicine hospital has been short of hands for a long time. As a result, he had to continue working there even after retirement.
"There are only seven doctors in the hospital, but on some days we have more than 200 patients turning up," Atra told.
Barkhor, 62, president of the Hongxing Township Hospital, said that at least one of the doctors would be on night shift every day, which meant there was one doctor less during the day.
"We are so short staffed that doctors are required to handle even the financial aspects, although they have little experience to do so," Barkhor told.
There are a total of 17 township hospitals and 97 village clinics in Zoige county, 500 kilometers away from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, according to the website of the county government.
The traditional Tibetan medicine has evolved hugely in recent years. The central government has spent 66 million yuan ($10.4 million) to improve medical facilities in Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region this year, according to a report of the Xinhua News Agency on Dec 13.
The money has enabled 27 hospitals across Tibet to purchase equipment or renovate buildings, the regional health administration said in a news release on Dec 13.
However, problems persist in many of the grassroots Tibetan hospitals. Most of the township-level hospitals in Zoige county are in a similar state as the Hongxing Township Hospital. The number of medical professionals is inadequate; the medical devices not advanced enough, according to Drolkar, vice-president of the hospital.
In most cases, diagnosis was based on the doctors' experiences such as reading the pulse rather than relying on physical checks using hi-tech machines, Drolkar said.
The hospital received less than 200,000 yuan of government subsidy for public medical services every year, cover-ing such programs as vaccination - far from enough to cover all medical expenses, Drolkar said.
"All young doctors in the hospital have to go to the mountains to collect herbs to make medicine in summer," Drolkar added.
The average income of the doctors in the township hospital was about 2,000 yuan per month, which Drolkar said was "not enough compared to the efforts they put in the job".
Tsering Damdru, director at the general office of the Tibetan-medicine Hospital of Zoige, said that the county hospital was planning to train about 50 Tibetan medicine doctors in 2012 to strengthen the grassroots medical services.
The local patients seem to be in favor of Tibetan medicine, as they come cheap and lead to less side effects.
Chukhar, 49, a Tibetan who caught a cold and went to see the doctor on Dec 16, said that it cost him only 3 yuan for the diagnosis and medicine.
"In some big hospitals, it usually costs 300-500 yuan to get one's cold cured, but it's much cheaper here," Chukhar said. "That's why we herdsmen choose the Tibetan medicine."