China to train more general practitioners

BEIJING -- Every 10,000 Chinese residents should have access to two or three general practitioners by 2020, rising to five by 2030, according to a government guideline issued on Jan 24.

Recruiting general practitioners is expected to ease the huge workload on big public hospitals, according to a guideline on development of general practitioners issued by the State Council.

While medical schools are to open more programs to train general practitioners, teaching hospitals are encouraged to open departments of general practice so that students can have adequate internship.

The government will work to increase salaries and conditions of general practitioners. Those who have bachelor's degrees and work at grassroot clinics will be equal to specialists who have master's degrees in payment and promotion, according to the document.

There were 189,000 general practitioners in China in 2015, accounting for only 6.2 percent of the total number of doctors, with one general practitioner for every 10,000 citizens, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.