Residents in China's poverty-stricken countryside will soon benefit from basic healthcare provided by mobile hospitals, state media reported.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Health have invested 230 million yuan (27.7 million dollars) in a new programme to provide "door-to-door" health service to rural residents, the China Daily said. 

Some 1,000 coaches, or mobile hospitals, will be sent to rural areas in central and western China to diagnose common disease, to perform minor operations and health check-ups as well as to promote health education to farmers who have limited access to hospitals in towns and cities. 

The vehicles will also be used for testing for HIV and other contagious diseases. 

The new arrangement is reminiscent of a similar system in the 1970s, when the country sent large groups of the so-called "barefoot doctors" -- many of whom were paramedics -- to rural areas to provide primary health care and promote public health campaigns. 

Another 800 coaches bought with treasury bonds will be put into service at the end of the year, the paper said. 

"We aim to equip every county in western and central China with a mobile hospital," Li Shenglin, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission was quoted as saying. 

Li said the programme was part of China's resolve to develop a sound healthcare system in rural areas. 

Rural residents currently enjoy only around 30 percent of China's health resources. China's social security system is still provided to mainly urban residents. 

Many farmers cannot afford increasingly expensive medical bills and deterioration of their health conditions propagates the poverty problem in the countryside, the report said. 

Since last year, the central government has earmarked 10 yuan (1.2 dollars) per year for each rural resident, as well as collecting the same amount from local authorities and the residents themselves in central and western China to enroll farmers onto a new medical insurance scheme.