Current status of primary health care institutions and personnels in China: challenges and issues

The current status of primary health institutions and personnels in China were analyzed based on the data from China Health and Family Planning Statistics Yearbook 2016 and China Health Statistics Summary 2018. By the end of 2017, there were 253 000 general practitioners in China, accounting for 7.46% of all practicing physicians or assistant physicians in the country(339 000). In 2017, the number of general practice residents was 8 517, accounting for 11.92% of all residents(71 430), which was 1.70% lower than that in 2016(8 664). The registered nurses in primary health care institutions were not sufficient, even the proportion of nursing to medical staff did not reach 1∶1 in primary settings. The distribution of primary health care institutions was not balanced. In the township hospitals and village clinics the number of practicing physicians or assistant physicians was far from meeting the requirement of the service. In view of the current problems, the social resources would be applied to promote the development of primary health care institutions and to improve the primary medical services in multiple ways such as personnel training, hardware construction, network construction and financial support, etc. Key words: General practice; Primary health care institution; Social resources