Abstract
BackgroundGeneral practitioners are the gatekeepers of the health of the residents. This study aims to evaluate the trend and equity of general practitioners' allocation from 2012 to 2017 in China and provide a reference for regional health planning and rational distribution of general practitioners.MethodsWe extracted the data of general practitioners from 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 municipalities of mainland China. The population and geographical area were taken from the China Statistical Yearbook. The general practitioners' data were taken from the China Health Statistical Yearbook. Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and agglomeration degree were used to analyze the data.ResultsThe number of general practitioners was 252,717 in 2017, which equates to 1.82 per 10,000 residents, and accounts for 7.45% of the total number of practicing (assistant) doctors. From 2012 to 2017, the population-based Gini coefficient for general practitioners reduced from 0.31 to 0.24, while the geographical area-based Gini coefficient remained unchanged at 0.73. The agglomeration degree based on population increased from 0.72 to 0.73 in the western region including Tibet (0.403) and Shaanxi (0.513). Moreover, in the eastern region the agglomeration degree reduced from 1.477 to 1.329. In the middle region it rose from 0.646 to 0.802. The agglomeration degree based on the geographical area in the western region increased from 0.270 to 0.277 while the values in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang were less than 0.1. In the eastern region, it reduced from 1.447 to 1.329. It increased from 1.149 to 1.423 in the middle region.ConclusionsThe number of general practitioners has increased significantly in China. It has a fair allocation based on population. However, the equity based on geographical area is low and uneven in different regions with large regional differences. In the western region, there is an allocation shortage with respect to population and geographical area. Concerned departments should establish and improve the incentive and performance appraisal mechanisms of general practitioners. The Internet + should be used to empower their service capacity and efficiency. The educational input should be increased for the western region and government should encourage the eastern region to support the western region.
Highlights
As per the World Health Organization, access to health is everyone’s right, and everyone has the right to access essential medical and health services [1]
We divided the Eastern region, central region, and the western region according to the China Health Statistics Yearbook 2018
We explored the proportion and registration rate of general practitioners
Summary
As per the World Health Organization, access to health is everyone’s right, and everyone has the right to access essential medical and health services [1]. Yu et al Hum Resour Health (2021) 19:20 diseases, senile diseases, and chronic diseases in primary medical institutions. These general practitioners are the ones who provide continuous, individual, and comprehensive primary medical and health services and are known as the gatekeepers of residents’ health [2]. The equity of general practitioner resource allocation is of great significance to the residents’ access to essential medical and health services. First is the population allocation equity that is, the number of human resources for health per thousand people in different regions should be equal. This study aims to evaluate the trend and equity of general practitioners’ allocation from 2012 to 2017 in China and provide a reference for regional health planning and rational distribution of general practitioners
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