[The establishment and development of the Beijing-Soviet Union Red Cross Hospital (1952-1957)]

The national healthcare system was underdeveloped with weak medical technologies and outdated medical industrial norms, urgently requiring institutional reform in the early days of the New China. The Beijing-Soviet Union Red Cross Hospital built on the foundation of the Sino-Soviet friendship and alliance (1952-1957) became a model for comprehensive hospital development in China at that time, as the first landmark achievement of Sino-Soviet medical cooperation. It received full-spectrum Soviet support in medical facilities, core technologies and expert teams. It introduced scientific hospital management, standardized talent training and regular health education systems, and optimized medical staff's professional ethics and work styles, successfully treated numerous intractable diseases and reformed the outdated Republican-era medical system. The localised adjustment and reforms after it was officially handed over to the Chinese side in 1957 provided meaningful practice experience for the following Chinese medical development in terms of integrating the advantages overseas with specific national conditions and promoting the modernisation of hospital management. Examining the process and development of the Beijing-Soviet Union Red Cross Hospital helps improving current health care system with Chinese characteristics.