training

Year family medicine established: 2010 (personal interview, 2018)

Type of Training: Residency Program  (personal interview, 2018)

Length of Training: Post-Secondary Education, (Dai et al., 2013)  residency (3 years), (interview, 2018) training program (1 year) (personal interivew, 2018)  

Number of institutions that offer family medicine: Unknown

Number of family medicine residents graduating each year: The aim is to have 20% of graduates pursue a family medicine specialty (personal interivew, 2018)

practice

Number of family doctors: 51 000 doctors and assistant doctors qualified in family medicine in Mainland China (2006) (Chen et al.. 2007). 5.3% of 2.3 million physicians in the country were family physicians in the year of 2010.

Physician to population ratio: 180 physicians/ 100 000 (World Bank, 2015)

QALY: QALY has improved in China upon the entrance of Family medicine yet the role of a family physician in this country remains limited.

DALY: 15,279/100,000 individuals (due to all causes).

Life Expectancy:

Females 2017: 78.0 years

Males 2017: 74.6 years

Infant mortality rate 2017: 8.0 deaths per 1,000 live births

College of Family Physicians (Y or N): Yes: Chinese Medical Association of General Practitioners

training

China requires 3-8 years of post-secondary medical school training, depending on the institution and degree obtained for family medicine (Income Per Capita, 2018)

This is followed by a 3-year residency, graduates from medical school who are pursuing a family medicine speciality must complete a 3-year residency program to become a licenced family physician after assessment, (personal interview, 2018) About 2 years and 3 months is spent in hospital, with 9 months spent in the community. Finally, a practicing physician must complete a one-year top-off program and to become legally licensed, after assessment (personal interview, 2018).

It is currently unknown how many institutions offer family medicine, it seems that family medicine training is organized by government organizations, offering training in public and private hospitals (personal interview, 2018). Roughly 20% of graduates pursue a family medicine specialty (personal interview, 2018).

practice

China has a very community oriented primary care for patients. Chinese medicine practitioners are recognized and can be combined with traditional family medicine.

China has outpatient and inpatient care. There is some degree of integrated medicine in hospitals. Vaccinations are given by family physicians, reaching over 80% of the population. Chicken pox vaccinations are not performed in China (personal interview, 2018). In China, family doctors are gatekeepers - a family doctor must be seen to be referred to a specialist (personal interview, 2018).