Abstract
This paper is a commentary on the training of Chinese Primary Health Care Doctors to reduce chronic illness and its burden. First, we will consider the policy position of the Chinese government concerning the development of a competent and enlarged primary physician workforce to deliver the proposed primary health care system reforms. We then turn to a review of the drivers of the high burden of chronic illnesses especially in older people in China. We argue that the curriculum for the training of primary health care medical practitioners should match the demonstrated high prevalence chronic illnesses and their risk factors and that there needs to specific competencies in prevention and mitigation of the diseases and their risk factors.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Public Health Education and Promotion, a section of the journal Frontiers in Public Health
We argue that the curriculum for the training of primary health care medical practitioners should match the demonstrated high prevalence chronic illnesses and their risk factors and that there needs to specific competencies in prevention and mitigation of the diseases and their risk factors
The following figure shows the historical trends of physician ratios per 1,000 people from 1960 to 2018 for China and other key countries involved in primary health care reform (Figure 1)
Summary
The central inclusion of the concept of People-Centered Integrated Care reflects best global health care practice [11] This is the way that many health systems have gone, by placing the patient at the center of the health service efforts and design. While all the identified “levers” are certainly worthy of attention, our focus as educators of primary health care physicians in this commentary is on delivering the required numbers of appropriately trained doctors to participate in the new reformed Chinese system. It is evident that primary health care physicians require a substantive knowledge of these conditions and their prevention and management This is how many medical curriculums are organized with a list of key conditions to be covered
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