LHASA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- About 3 million people in the southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, about 90 percent of its population, received free medical examinations in 2017, according to the regional commission of health and family planning.

Since 2012, the year the regional government launched the free medical examination program, medical workers have been sent to villages, communities, and temples to offer free medical checkups for local residents and set up health records for them.

(File photo: VCG)

"My granddaughter is only one year old. She has already received screening for congenital heart disease, and has her own health record," said Tsering Drolkar, 64, who lives in a community in Shannan, "It's so convenient to have the medical exam near our home."

In addition to the free medical examinations, in recent years, doctors from top-level hospitals in cities have been paired with county and prefecture-level hospitals in high altitude and remote areas, to improve local medical and healthcare services.