To alleviate sufferings of patients due to poor rural medical services, China administrative authority said it will almost double the number of doctors by 2020. Insufficient and low-quality health care resources result from badly organized hospital system. Because a scarcity of doctors causes the problem, Beijing aims to have two general doctors per thousand people by 2020 and to increase the number of nursing staff as well.
According to China’s State Council’s five-year roadmap, the government would incorporate technology such as mobile devices and online cloud systems into medical sector in order to secure digital databases for health records and patient information.
Most important goal in medical reform is to provide affordable and accessible health care to people who are currently expected to pay a large amount expense due to low insurance coverage.
Since a paucity of medical labor and high medical expense results from doctors’ low salaries, I wonder what the government will present as practical initiatives to lure potential labor force.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/03/31/china-aims-to-double-doctor-numbers-as-cure-for-healthcare-woes/
I also read in one of the news that China would push forward the development of grassroots healthcare, a fast-growing business segment, while reining in some large public hospitals in urban centres. What do you think what might be the most important reason for that?
Besides low salaries, doctors in China also face lots of pressures from patients and the society, too. There has been concerns over hospital violence in which stabbings and confrontations become increasingly common.
There’s an article on International Business Time reporting a doctor leaping to his death in an apparent suicide. “Zhang Shilin, a urology surgeon working in Shanghai’s renowned Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, jumped from the building earlier this week, shortly after being treated at a different hospital for depression. As officials investigate the suicide, speculation over what drove the doctor to take his own life has brought attention to the pressures of being a doctor in China” (International Business Time).
http://www.ibtimes.com/chinas-medical-system-strains-both-patients-doctors-hospital-violence-becomes-increasingly-common
Ahn touches on a key point: unless honest doctors can earn an income commensurate with the opportunity costs of their training and general personal potential in other industries, doctors will remain scarce. As long as the system remains that described in Ma & Adams it will also remain low in status. None of this bodes well for the immediate future, as it will take many years to go from hoping for more doctors to actually having more doctors.