Recently I attended a 2 day symposium in Guangzhou bringing together General Practitioners (GP’s), trainers and lecturers from the United Kingdom (UK) with Chinese doctors working in either hospitals or community health centers. Being from the UK, I found it quite an illuminating event 🙂
Over the 2 days various topics were discussed including:
- Characteristics of UK General Practice
- The UK GP Training Curriculum
- The GP Consultation
- Pay for Performance: Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)
- The structure and ethos of GP training in the UK
- Review on Core Functionalities of China General Practice
My current feeling is that the Chinese medical system must go through some major reforms and make some big changes if it wants to emulate the British system. In particular the primary care system needs to be seriously revamped from the ground upwards with community health centers given adequate resources, training and skills to play the “gatekeeper” role that British family doctors play so well.
Working in a community health center in Zhuhai I can see first hand the many challenges that we face and seemingly have to overcome to create, plan and initiate such a system. I do believe however that with the right government support and leadership, these challenges can be faced and overcome, and China can create an innovate, fully integrated healthcare system providing forward thinking primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary health services.
It will take time though. Many years I imagine. But step by step (with more events like this one) real grass roots change will start to happen. I can see it already with my own eyes 🙂
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