Elderly care, doctor training among key issues addressed

Goal aims to train 500, 000 general practitioners

China aims to train 500,000 more general practitioners by 2030, a senior official said on Jan 25.

At present, China has 209,000 general practitioners, but aims to enable every 10,000 residents to have access to five general practitioners by 2030, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, at a news conference held by the State Council's Information Office.

According to a regulation released by the State Council on Wednesday, between two and three qualified general practitioners should be available for every 10,000 people in China by 2020, and the number will increase to five by 2030.

Zeng said that key reforms would be carried out, including increasing salaries and the social status for general practitioners and making the job a more attractive career.

"As general practitioners usually offer services in local communities, villages and towns, they are more familiar with local people's living habits and health conditions than hospitals in cities," Zeng said. "Therefore, general practitioners play a crucial role in local disease prevention and healthcare, and ease the huge workload of big public hospitals."

In 2015, there were 189,000 general practitioners in China, accounting for only 6.2 percent of all doctors, with one general practitioner for every 10,000 citizens, according to the commission.