Average life expectancy to go up to 77 by 2020

Beijing: The average life expectancy forChinese will go up to 77 years by 2020, one year more than the figure in 2015, the health authority said here.

While introducing a health development plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) at a press conference, Ma Xiaowei, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said a national medical and health system that covers both urban and rural residents will be formed by 2020.

To support the two-child policy, China will have 89,000 more maternity beds as well as 140,000 more obstetricians and midwives by 2020, Ma said. Meanwhile, the country will establish a standardised medical test system for identifying partly disabled and disabled seniors, and provide targeted medical services based on the test results, Ma was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Ma also promised better health services at local hospitals to address the needs of home-based and community-based eldercare.