Katia Deng/ Shanghai Daily news

Government funds available for local residents’public health will be 40 yuan (US$5.17) per capita, a senior health official said yesterday at a routine press conference.

Cai Wei, deputy director of local health bureau, also introduced the three-year (2007-2009) action plan for improving the city’s public health system.

The government will offer free treatment to elderly cataract patients and free medicine to poor residents with mental illness. Stricter check-ups will be required for local pregnant women to reduce the rate of babies born with congenital diseases.

In the next three years, the city will train 130 professionals in public health. By 2009, 70 percent of doctors working in community health centers will have a college education background and 40 percent will be qualified general practitioners.

The city will have 500 ambulances and 110 first-aid centers by 2009. Seven more emergency centers will be set up, one for cases of burns, three for acute injuries and three for children.

The city will go on exploring a system to supervise and evaluate the safety of medical treatment. Illegal medical services such as blood selling will be cracked down on.