UK and China exchange experience on General Practitioners systems
On 23 April 2013, the China-UK General Practitioners’ Policy Conference was successfully held in Beijing.
The China-UK General Practitioners’ (GP) Policy Conference was co-sponsored by the Academy of Macroeconomic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission and the British Embassy Beijing. Leaders from relevant departments of the Chinese government, British diplomatic officials, representatives from the pilot regions, as well as domestic and international experts in related fields attended the meeting.
The theme of this conference was the Construction of the General Practitioners System. Keynote speeches were made and in-depth discussions were conducted on the topics of training, incentive mechanisms, operation and service modes, as well as the existing problems in pilot regions. In addition, the training for government capacity building will be carried out on 24 April in different sections.
Participating experts believe that China’s healthcare system reform has made some achievements in the past few years. However, with the progress of reform, systematic problems also begin to emerge gradually. Therefore, at present, it is an inevitable choice to establish a general practitioners system and enhance the primary public health service system across the nation.
With high–level population density and insufficient healthcare conditions in vast rural areas, it is a huge challenge for China to establish a GP system with distinctiveness nationwide. It is necessary to follow the international advanced experiences and successful models, exploring GP systems suitable to the Chinese healthcare system environment on the basis of the current situation. Departments need to cooperate and support each other to build relevant regulations and policy frameworks regarding education, operation, motivation, and supervision. Moreover, professionals both China and abroad made comments on the progress of China’s GP pilot regions, and put forward suggestions and strategies for further improvement.
Based on the discussion over the various topics, the conference would invite international experts to conduct training for government officials on the second day and exchange ideas about different GP policy modules. Authoritative experts such as Academician Zeng Yixin, President of the Peking Union Medical College, and Professor Meng Qingyue, Dean of the School of Public Health, Peking University will make comments on the discussion results, and explore feasible methods for the establishment and the implementation of General Practitioners system.