Experts call for improved grassroots facilities

Information sharing

In addition to reforming the CDCs, connectivity between CDCs and hospitals, and CDCs and related government departments, must be improved to provide efficient information sharing, he said.

"In the case of epidemics, the CDCs are the scouts and they must be better linked with hospitals in terms of both information and personnel, so they have adequate information to fight epidemics," he added.

Meanwhile, government departments such as the customs and the aviation authority, which hold information on travelers' movements, can provide CDCs with valuable information in the event of a major outbreak of disease.

At present, it is difficult for CDCs to obtain such information from those authorities, Dong said.

Following the coronavirus outbreak, many health experts called for improved efforts to strengthen CDCs nationwide, including raising their status and improving talent building, so they can play a better role in epidemic control.

He Lin, a deputy to the NPC, said more attention urgently needs to be paid to talent building, so public health bodies are capable of assuming such duties.

"Talent in CDCs has been draining since 2010, mainly due to low wages, and some CDC workers would rather work as testers at hospitals," said He, deputy director of the Health Education Department at the Guizhou Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Guiyang, Guizhou province.

"I suggest improving CDC workers' salaries and putting them under government management, similar to government employees, to improve their career prospects and team stability."

Dong said CDCs face a dilemma: the better their work, the better it is for disease control and prevention, but that poses a risk that they will become less visible to the public.

"It is important to prioritize disease prevention over treatment at all times, rather than just during outbreaks," he said.

"The mission for CDC workers is to ensure that epidemics don't occur－but to do this they have to make consistent efforts every day."

Huang Gairong is a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC and also director of the Department of Geriatric Medicine at Henan Provincial People's Hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan province.

He said the outbreak has exposed failings in the basic health system.

The problems include a lack of disease prevention and control capacity in many grassroots institutions, such as community health centers, he said.

Following the SARS outbreak, government investment in basic public health rose markedly for several years, but it has been falling since 2010, he added.