The public health system in Beijing was still not good enough to make a quick response in emergencies like the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), senior officials said in Beijing Wednesday.

Vice Mayor Niu Youcheng told the Beijing Municipal Working Conference on Health that the city has five serious defects in its health system, including inadequate investment, slow response to public health crises, weak sanitary facilities, lack of supervision and a lack of health facilities in rural areas.

Niu said the city's current health budget failed to satisfy demand for disease prevention and basic health care.

"Beijing still lacks open and transparent monitoring networks and information reporting systems to cope with emergency health crises," Niu said.

Beijing reported more than 2,000 SARS patients and nearly 200 deaths during the SARS outbreak this spring.

Niu said health and medical sectors would shift their focus on diseases prevention and control from medical treatment alone and build a complete and sound emergency public health crisis response mechanism in 2005.

At the conference, the city government decided to introduce private funding and foreign capital into its state-owned hospitals.

(People's Daily   November 20, 2003)