More Hospitals and Longer Lifespan

With more hospitals set up in Lhasa, it is now much easier for locals to visit doctors when sick. There is the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Hospital in the northern section of the city; the Lhasa Municipal People's Hospital in the eastern section; the No. 2 Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Hospital and the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in the western section; and the Tibet Autonomous Regional Tibetan Medicine Hospital in the downtown area. Other hospitals include the General Hospital of the PLA Tibet Military Command and the General Hospital of the Armed Police, which also provide medical services to civilians.

Tibetan medicine, a cultural heritage of the Tibetan race, is produced from extracts of materials gathered in the snowy mountains. The medicine is extremely efficacious for blood circulation, the heart, intestines, skin and women's diseases, and is thus loved by the Lhasans. The Tibet Autonomous Regional Tibetan Medicine Hospital, formed from the former Yaowangshan Tibetan Medicine Hospital and the Lhasa Moinzekang (Medical and Calendrical Institute), boasts 150 beds and is complete with an Out-Patient Department, an In-Patient Department, a Tibetan Pharmaceutical Plant, a Tibetan Medicine Research Institute and an Astronautical and Calendrical Research Institute. The hospital provides medical treatment to over 300,000 patients a year.

The various counties under the jurisdiction of Lhasa boast their own Tibetan medicine hospitals and plants to facilitate local service.

Lhasa has built up a public health network for women and children. In 1984, the city set up its first heath station and health training center specifically for women and children. This was followed by the construction of health stations for women and children in various counties, which endeavored to publicize knowledge on women's health and new methods of birth. In 1995, the Birth and Health Training Center was set up in Lhasa with aid from the Central Government, ensuring safe births for Tibetan women.

In the past, ordinary Lhasans had no access to medical treatment; as a result tens of thousands of people were killed by contagious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, typhoid fever and plague. Many villages and towns were wiped out by the invasion of these diseases. In 1925, for instance, more than 7,000 people died of smallpox in areas around Lhasa; and in 1934 and 1937 when cholera hit Lhasa, more than 5,000 people were killed by the disease. Today, a health network has been set up in Lhasa and the rest of the Tibet Autonomous Region; it is staffed with some 300 medical and health workers who work hard to monitor contagious diseases and ensure sanitary food and a safe environment.