In early winter, the sun is warm and the breeze is gentle. On the afternoon of November 30, 2025, the Public Health Service Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society, in collaboration with the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, the Ningbo Geriatrics Society, the People's Hospital and Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Fenghua District, Ningbo City, the People's Government of Xikou Town, Fenghua District, Ningbo City, and the Village Committee of Shimen Village, among other units, jointly held the event "Health Empowering Rural Revitalization". The "Free Medical Consultation to Rural Areas: Warmth for the Elderly" public welfare free medical consultation event was held in Shimen Village, Xikou Town, Fenghua District, Ningbo City. The event attracted nearly two hundred elderly people from Shimen Village in Xikou Town and surrounding villages to participate.

High-quality medical care has been extended to rural areas, inviting experts to the villages

Many of our elderly people have difficulty going out, and it's even more challenging for them to seek medical treatment in big cities. The Party branch secretary of Shimen Village said with emotion, "It's truly a timely help to bring so many experts to our doorstep this time."

He rolled up his sleeves and waited quietly for his blood pressure to be measured. "I heard that there are big experts from Beijing and Hangzhou today. I came especially to take a look at my old leg pain," he said with a smile.

At the event site, more than ten medical experts from Beijing, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places provided one-on-one consultation services for common and difficult diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, sarcopenia, sequelae of stroke, sleep disorders, cataracts and glaucoma for the elderly villagers, with the Shimen Village Cultural Hall as the center. They also evaluated and provided suggestions for the daily medication of the elderly.

Li Hucheng, a specially-appointed professor and chief physician at Tsinghua University Chang Gung Hospital, said, "We hope that through such activities, we can truly bring high-quality medical resources down to the grassroots level, so that rural elderly people can also enjoy professional health services."

Precision health Empowerment: From "Treating diseases" to "Preventing diseases"

In addition to the regular free medical consultation, the event site also carefully set up a health knowledge lecture on "Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases in the Elderly in Autumn and Winter" and a rehabilitation exercise training session. The popular science book "Casual Talk on Deep Vein Thrombosis" written by experts from the Chinese Geriatrics Society was given away for free to the elderly who participated in the event. There were also caring organizations such as Dongfang Jiafu Life Insurance Co., Ltd. present to offer volunteer services, distributing free health science popularization materials and exclusive health gift packages. Rehabilitation therapists led the elderly on the spot to learn the "Home-based rehabilitation bone-strengthening Exercises". Meanwhile, Yang Zunqiang, the director of Shifang Geriatric Hospital in Sichuan Province, and Gu Jialin, a resident physician in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and other TCM experts guided the elderly to establish the health concept of "preventing diseases before they occur" through pulse diagnosis, tongue diagnosis and seasonal health preservation guidance.

We should not only treat patients but also teach them how to manage their own health. Bao Ming, a chief physician in the Department of Cardiology at the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army and deputy director general of the Public Health Service Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society, said, "The key to health empowerment lies in enhancing the health literacy and self-management ability of the grassroots population."

The five-party linkage model builds a new mechanism for rural health services

This free medical consultation is not only a "blood transfusion" of medical resources, but also an exploration of an innovative mechanism for rural health services. The activity has established a five-party linkage model of "national-level social organizations (societies) - local governments - grassroots villages - medical institutions - charitable units", forming a multi-party synergy to promote the advancement of rural health services towards professionalization, normalization and institutionalization.

MAO Shoulong, the president of the Public Health Service Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society and the executive director of the Institute of Public Policy at Renmin University of China, pointed out that this model is a concrete practice of implementing the deployment of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on "improving the elderly care service system" and "promoting the downward flow of health services", providing a solid health support for the rural revitalization strategy.

Warm care for the elderly, services safeguard the most beautiful "Sunset glow"

"Keep your daily diet light and low in salt." "Take this medicine on time and don't stop." "Walk more often and keep warm." These words of advice warmed the hearts of the elderly. With the deepening of population aging in our country, rural elderly health services have become an important part of rural revitalization. This free medical consultation is not only a medical action but also a transmission of social care, vividly interpreting the traditional virtues of respecting, honoring, helping and loving the elderly.

"We are not only going to offer a free medical consultation service, but also leave behind a set of replicable and scalable rural health service experiences, so that high-quality medical resources can truly take root at the grassroots level," said Zhang Lianshan, vice president of the Public Health Service Branch of the China Geriatrics Society. It is learned that after the free medical consultation event, the expert team will also visit the elderly care institutions in Xikou Town to conduct special research, gain a deeper understanding of the health service demands of grassroots elderly care institutions, and accumulate experience for the subsequent optimization of the rural elderly care health service model.

Healthy China starts from the countryside. As the sun set in the west, the free medical consultation gradually came to an end, but the seeds of health services had already taken root and sprouted on this land. In the future, the Public Health Service Branch of the China Geriatrics Society will continue to promote more such public welfare free medical consultations in a larger rural area, drive the continuous downward flow of high-quality medical resources, and enable more elderly people with silver age at the grassroots level to enjoy convenient and professional health services right at their doorstep, injecting more warm and solid strength into achieving the strategic goals of "Healthy China" and "Rural Revitalization".