BEIJING - A new round of medical and healthcare reform has made Chinese people's access to basic public health services much more equitable, according to a cpublished on Wednesday.

The latest round of reform, launched in 2009, has narrowed the gap in medical development between urban and rural areas and between regions, said the white paper titled "Medical and Health Services in China."

The reform has made medical services more affordable and accessible, with fewer and fewer people becoming poor or returning to poverty because of illness, said the document released by the Information Office of the State Council.

In the 1980s, the Chinese government initiated reform of the medical and healthcare systems, and speeded up the reform in 2003 after a success was won in the fight against the SARS. In March 2009, the Chinese government set off a new round of reform in this regard, according to the white paper.

The basic goal of the new reform was to provide the whole nation with basic medical and health services as a public product, and ensure that everyone, regardless of location, nationality, age, gender, occupation and income, enjoys equal access to basic medical and health services.

By 2011, China has built the world's largest network of basic medical security which covers 1.3 billion people, or 95 percent of the total population, said the document.

During the same period, the number of grass-roots medical and healthcare institutions across the country reached 918,000, including 26,000 urban community service centers, 38,000 township hospitals and 663,000 village clinics, and the number of hospital beds reached 1,234,000.

In addition, the white paper noted that healthcare undertakings still fall far short of the public's demands for healthcare as well as the requirements of economic and social development.