Chapter 18 Vibrant health career

The Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area is located in a remote village, and the medical and health services are quite backward.A popular ballad in northern Sichuan at that time said: "Poor enough to sleep in a pot, how can there be money to take medicine. If you are sick, you only wish to die earlier, so as not to be tortured alive." Smallpox, syphilis, malaria, typhoid, measles Various acute and severe infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, dysentery, etc. occur from time to time.In addition, the tragic war resulted in the death of a large number of people on both sides, and tens of thousands of dead bodies caused environmental pollution. Plague, typhoid, malaria, dysentery and other plagues were prevalent. Diseases and plagues seriously threatened the health of the Red Army soldiers and the general public in the Soviet area.

In order to meet the urgent needs of the cadres and masses in the Soviet Area to seek medical advice, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government established a medical and health institution system in the Soviet Area within a relatively short period of time.The medical and health institution system in the Soviet Area consists of three parts: The first part is the field hospital of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army.The Fourth Red Front Army General Hospital is a unit directly under the General Political Department of the Fourth Red Front Army. It integrates medicine, politics, military, teaching, and research.The General Hospital has seven branches, five military hospitals, fifteen division hospitals, and forty-four regiment clinics, with an average daily admission of 3,000 wounded, and a maximum of 6,000 wounded. It was the largest institution in the Soviet area at that time. The most robust and functional field hospital.

The second part is collectively referred to as the Workers’ and Peasants’ Hospital Sequence, which was established and organized under the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Democratic Government in Sichuan-Shaanxi Province. It is a purely traditional Chinese medicine medical and health institution serving local armed forces, party and government agencies, employees and the general public. In July 1933, Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Workers and Peasants General Hospital was established in Maoyu Town, and in February 1934 it was moved to Liangmabali, Xiaokou, Changsheng.The General Hospital consists of the Political Department, Medical Affairs Department, General Affairs Department and 15 patient companies.Fifteen patient companies are distributed in fifteen large courtyards in Santiao Changyuan.The deans have been successively served by Li Jingyuan, Chen Dingyu, Wang Xinggang, and Wang Chaolu.There are more than 420 staff members in the hospital, including more than 150 people from various departments of the hospital, more than 270 medical staff, and more than 3,000 hospital beds (equivalent to ordinary beds).The General Hospital has successively admitted and treated more than 26,000 wounded and sick, and cured more than 23,000 people.The Workers and Peasants General Hospital has set up six branch hospitals in Washipu, Hebachang, Yinggezui, Bazhong Qingjiangdu, Guanyinyan, and Zhenlongguan in Hongjiang County.

The Soviet governments in each county also established their own branch hospitals for workers and peasants, and set up workers’ and farmers’ pharmacies or pharmacies in the economic communes of townships and towns in each district, and hired doctors to treat local soldiers and civilians.In the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area, the lack of medicines and doctors is the biggest problem in hospital construction.The Workers and Peasants General Hospital recruited local doctors to sit in the hall for medical treatment, mobilized the masses to collect a large number of Chinese herbal medicines, and opened red Chinese medicine training classes, which partially solved the problem of lack of medicine and medicine.During the more than two years of existence in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area, the General Hospital of Workers and Peasants and its affiliated hospitals cured 23,000 wounded and sick patients, which largely guaranteed the health of soldiers and civilians. In the spring of 1935, the General Hospital of Workers and Peasants and its branch hospitals withdrew from the Long March of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area with the Red Army.

The third part is private hospitals and clinics.The Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet government encouraged private doctors to open private hospitals and pharmacies, and travel to villages and villages to treat diseases for the masses. These three levels of medical and health institutions constituted a huge system of medical and health institutions in the Sichuan-Shanxi Soviet Area, and made positive contributions to saving lives, preserving revolutionary forces, and improving the health of the people in the base areas.These three levels of medical and health institutions are open to local ordinary people, providing medical services to the poor, and do not charge for medicine and consultation fees.The Red Army General Hospital also often dispatches itinerant medical teams to various places to carry out medical tours to extinguish epidemics, compile and print pamphlets on the prevention and treatment of epidemics, popularize medical and health knowledge, and improve the ability to prevent and treat diseases.Strengthen the control and treatment of large-scale epidemic diseases that seriously affect people's life, health and quality of life.These practices won the heartfelt support of the masses for the Red Army. The common people said: "The warlords turned people into ghosts, and the Red Army turned ghosts into people. It's better to join the Red Army!"

Improving the health level focuses on prevention and control. In order to strengthen the mass health and epidemic prevention work, the Sichuan-Shanxi Soviet Area established health and epidemic prevention institutions at the provincial, county, district, and township levels.Hospitals at all levels also have relevant administrative departments responsible for popularizing health knowledge and concurrently managing health and epidemic prevention.The Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area also vigorously carried out health and epidemic prevention publicity through various forms that the masses liked to see, raised public health awareness, and advocated national fitness campaigns. "Meeting" and other national fitness activities, encouraging "exercise to eliminate Liu Xiang".

In order to improve the health knowledge of the people and the Red Army soldiers, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet health and medical department also specially printed and distributed pamphlets such as "Health Series" and "Health Knowledge", which included "health law, the use of air, hygiene in public places, sunbathing, etc. What are the benefits, good ways to prevent illness, diet, good habits of hygiene” and other extensive hygiene knowledge. The Propaganda Department of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee also edited "General Hygienic Knowledge" and distributed it to various places in a numbered document.Among them, eighteen kinds of health-enhancing methods are put forward, requiring people to change clothes and bathe frequently, wash hands before meals and after defecation, maintain indoor air circulation, brush teeth and mouthwash in the morning and evening, wash bedding every half a month; emphasize closing toilets, clearing garbage, dredging gutters, Do not spit everywhere; explain the knowledge that "disease enters through the mouth", and require clean, fresh, timely and appropriate food.Take a bath at least once a week, change clothes once a week, wash your hands before and after meals, do not eat raw or cold food or food that flies have crawled over, do not spit anywhere, do not be bitten by mosquitoes, bedbugs and fleas, do not dig with dirty fingers Ears, nostrils or rub eyes, brush teeth every morning and evening.

The "Health Common Sense" edited and published by the Soviet government of Sichuan-Shaanxi Province focuses on the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases at that time, such as foot rot, dysentery, and typhoid fever.The "Simplified Hygiene Common Sense" written by Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army, is extremely practical, and it is easy for soldiers with low education levels to grasp: 1. Daily morning exercises must be practiced...it can strengthen the muscles and bones, activate the arteries, and strengthen the body... 2. Eat moderately every day, don't be too hungry or full, don't eat rotten food, don't drink raw water.

3. The living place and house should be clean, and the unclean things should be buried far away.The air should circulate and the light should be sufficient. 4. Clothes and quilts should be washed and changed frequently and exposed to the sun. 5. Sleep at night, don't be greedy for coolness in summer and sleep in a place where the wind passes, and don't close the doors and windows tightly in winter. 6. Fruits and snacks sold in the market should not be bought and eaten if they are not fresh. "Battlefield Hygiene" written by Zeng Zhongsheng, chief of staff of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission:

1. The clothes should be washed frequently, the towels should be dried frequently, the face, feet, hair and body should be washed and unremitting. 2. The drinking water should be clean, the food should be fresh, and the houses on the ground should be cleaned without any dust. 3. The dead bodies of people and horses should be buried deep, the rot and garbage should be sent far away, and we must try our best to deal with mosquitoes and flies. 4. Fecal poison is easy to smoke, the smell is unpleasant, mosquitoes and flies are infecting, and all kinds of diseases are rife. Therefore, the military toilets have to be dug far away, and it is not allowed to defecate casually.

5. There are many malaria and dysentery in autumn, typhoid fever in winter and spring, sores and scabies are also easy to infect, the most terrible thing is that the plague is rampant in summer and autumn, all diseases are due to unhygienic. 6. Regardless of marching, regardless of garrison, regardless of rest or war... Whether it is a soldier or an officer, it is necessary to pay attention to hygiene, implement inspections, implement rewards, and implement punishments. It is all up to the company commander and instructor. The Red Army General Hospital often issued leaflets on disease prevention and treatment. For example, in 1934, red and white dysentery was prevalent in the base area. The general hospital issued leaflets asking people to boil water with western fur. People use dove grass and dew grass to burn ashes for treatment.At the same time, various public places are used to publicize and popularize health knowledge.