The confidence index for Chinese family doctors is only 32.64 percent, according to a report published on Tuesday during the 2014 China Family Doctors Forum.

Gu Yuan, professor at Capital Medical University, speaks at the opening ceremony of the 2014 China Family Doctor Forum. [youth.cn]

The research, conducted by China Medical Tribune, collected 1,170 samples over a period of one month. The results show that working environment and income are the two factors which concern Chinese family doctors most, but that both these aspects are far from satisfactory in China today.

Statistics from the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) reveal that there are only about 300,000 family doctors throughout the world, and that 120,000 of them were located in the United States as of 2012.

Unlike in the United States and other developed countries, family doctor or general practitioner is still an emerging occupation in China.

In 2013, China only had 78,000 family doctors or general practitioners, which means that there were 0.6 family doctors for every 10,000 Chinese people.

Professor Gu Yuan of Capital Medical University, who first introduced the concept of family doctors to the Chinese mainland, said that balancing the resources and interests of different levels of hospitals and medical institutions is still a crucial problem in the process of reforming China's medical system.

"Chinese patients are used to rushing to large hospitals even when they get a cold," said Gu. "Actually, general practitioners can help us more than hospitals. They should be the biggest part of the country's entire medical system instead of large hospitals."

In 2011, the State Council published a document entitled "Directions for the Establishment of the General Practitioner System." Based on that, a general practitioner system will be established in China by 2020 to meet the health requirements of the country's 1.3 billion people.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)