GENERAL PRACTITIONER PLAN SET TO MEET RISING DEMAND IN CHINA

services instead of turning to big hospitals.

“It will help save a huge amount of time patients and doctors,” he added.

NHFPC figures show that as of 2015, there were 189,000 general practitioners in China, accounting for only 6.2 percent of the total number of doctors. This means one practitioner for every 10,000 citizens. “In some developed countries, such as the UK, the number of general practitioners is 50 percent of the country’s registered doctors, and such a ratio properly meets medical demand from the public,’’ Qi said, adding that China still has a long way to go.

Comparatively low payments are what make medical students reluctant to work as general practitioners, compared to a hospital-based specialist, Qi added.

Many medical schools in China now provide another three years of comprehensive training after graduation, which is an option for students graduating from one specific specialty to become a general practitioner.

With China’s efforts in developing tiered diagnosis and treatment models, they will be working in hospitals as the first entry of diagnosis for common medical consultancies, Qi said.

He stressed that this training needs to be enhanced and regulated.

“General practitioners work as the first diagnosis for all illnesses. It requires comprehensive and grounded knowledge to make a correct diagnosis, and to prevent unnecessary tests for the patients,” he said.

For 34-year-old Li Yunqi, mother of two, who settled in Beijing in 2011, more and better trained general practitioners are undoubtedly good news.

With one daughter, 6, and another 4, Li said running to hospitals has become a constant headache.

“My husband and I lived in London for one year in 2013, where we had a family doctor for all medical checkups such as colds or a sore throat, and we miss life with a family doctor there,” she said. “In Beijing, now I have to line up at least half an hour in the hospital if I need to see the doctor.”

She said she is willing to turn to general clinics for consultancy, but “only if the general practitioners there are as equally well-trained as those in big hospitals”. for both

SHI YU / CHINA DAILY