Medical staff want to help, not cause problems

First Person | Frank Morris-Davies

I think China has excellent doctors. Sadly, they just don't have enough time to listen to patients because there are huge lines of them waiting outside.

On the other hand, it's also difficult from the patients' point of view, because they don't have enough time to get a detailed explanation of their problems from their doctor.

I feel sympathy for overworked Chinese doctors. I was in a similar situation when I had my own practice in the United Kingdom and saw 60 patients a day. That's too many patients, and you can't practice good medicine.

I think the government is doing a fantastic job of changing the health service, such as building more hospitals and setting up family medicine departments and hierarchical medical systems. The government knows the problems, and is in the process of solving them, but it will take time.

One solution is to put family medicine departments next to emergency rooms and have a senior nurse screen the patients when they arrive. Patients should go to the ER if they really need first aid, but they go to the family medicine in other cases because the department can solve most problems. It's a way of preventing wastage of valuable medical resources. ER should be for people in the most critical situations.

The public should be educated to respect clinicians and all frontline staff, from receptionists to nurses to doctors, as professionals. Frontline members of staff are not there to cause problems - they are there to help.