Hygiene and health has been a focus of social concern since the outbreak of COVID-19.

During this year's annual session of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a group of members of the CPPCC National Committee from the central committees of non-Communist parties and the medicine and health sector submitted proposals for improving the public health system.

On Sept 4, the Committee on Education, Science, Health and Sport of the CPPCC National Committee held a meeting for proposers to take part in the discussions on this topic.

"Infectious diseases are not necessarily to be found in hospitals first. The outbreak in Wuhan shows that virus may appear in many venues. Although we established a direct online reporting system for infectious diseases after the SARS outbreak, we need to further improve and constantly adapt to new situations and changes," said an official in charge of institutional reform with the National Health Commission in remarks about the capacity for early warning.

The official called on efforts to strengthen the core functions of centers for disease control and prevention, such as the prevention and control of infectious diseases and emergency response, improvement of early monitoring and warning, to establish a multi-point triggering mechanism for intelligent early warning, and to intensify the monitoring and early warning of unexplained diseases and abnormal public health events.

At the meeting, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission said the commission has worked out plans with some other bodies to improve the prevention and treatment capacity for public health through enhancing fever outpatient services, improving admission capacity in translatable infectious disease areas and translatable ICUs, laboratory monitoring, and infectious disease detection.

According to the official, investment in the health sector is included in the budget from the central government.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, a surge of patients led to divergence of available medical resources and a lessened ability to admit and treat them, which is still a concern for some members of the CPPCC National Committee.

A strong public health system needs competent talents, which is also a concern in the proposals. An official of the Ministry of Education said that the ministry actively supported the establishment of undergraduate majors in preventive medicine in colleges and universities, more preferential policies in enrollment, and the construction of high-level public health colleges.

When it comes to financial investment, an official with the Ministry of Finance said that they would increase investment, optimize the expenditure structure, construct more infectious disease hospitals and departments at municipal, county and district levels, and support the improvement of staffing and salary system in the public health sector.

An official from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that they would also give more policy support to professionals and technical personnel in epidemic prevention and control.

"Construction of a public health system is not a matter for health departments alone; strengthening construction of a disease control system is not the same as the construction of the CDC. Inter-departmental coordination is very important," said Wu Ming, chairwoman of the Medical and Health Committee of the Jiusan Society Central Committee.

Her point of view was agreed to by Fang Laiying, another member of the CPPCC National Committee. According to Fang, improving the public health system requires overall planning and systematic promotion.

"The construction of the public health system is crucial to the modernization of the national governance system and capacity. Now, some of the issues we are discussing are still focusing on professional governance, which needs to be further upgraded to the level of national governance. Investment in human resources and property should center on improvement of relevant systems and mechanisms," said Rao Keqin, also a member of the CPPCC National Committee.

Overcoming the weakness should be promoted systematically while paying attention to details for progress. Li Junmin, a front line clinical worker and member of the China National Democratic Construction Association, pointed out that the current epidemiological databases are like isolated islands, and the data of clinical cases and basic research is not transparent enough.

"In the face of a serious epidemic, we should promote data sharing. The more abundant the data, the better," Li added.

Xu Fengqin, a member of the CPPCC National Committee, held that fever clinics are important sentinel site for epidemic prevention and control, and suggested further standardization of the construction and management of fever clinics in line with peacetime and wartime periods.

Li Xiuhua, also a CPPCC National Committee member, said that special attention should be paid to public health personnel training, in particular that of public health nurses, as this group's stability and rights protection are critical to overcoming the epidemic situation.

CPPCC National Committee Member Wu Hao called for attention to the role of public health doctors, adding that the relationship between public health doctors and clinicians and the connotation of prescription rights have not yet been clearly defined.

Relevant laws and regulations should be improved to promote the flow of personnel between "medical treatment" and "disease prevention", Wu noted.

Sun Xianze, vice-chairman of the Committee on Education, Science, Health and Sport of the CPPCC National Committee suggested a better personnel salary system and performance-based payment system in line with the characteristics of the public health industry, so as to retain professionals in the sector.

The public health system is the anti-pandemic firewall for people's health. The CPPCC National Committee members in heated discussions agreed to make the firewall stronger and more solid.