"The family doctor services really bring convenience. If I had not registered with a family doctor, I would have to go to a hospital for routine blood test as well as checking blood pressure and temperature, which the registered family doctor checks at my home," said Lu Liansheng, a resident of Wuxing Distirct, Huzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, in an interview with CMG.
Like Lu, more and more Chinese people now benefit from high-quality medical services after the nationwide launch of a system in 2016 whereby households can get registered with a family doctor. Community-level medical and health institutions now provide door-to-door services, long-term prescriptions and two-way referral to local residents.
Thursday (May 19) marks the 12th World Family Doctor Day. The family doctor services in China are expected to expand to cover at least 75 percent of its population by 2035, according to a guideline jointly issued by six government departments, including the National Health Commission, in March.
Per the guideline, by 2035, family doctors are expected to cover about 85 percent of prioritized patients, including the elderly, pregnant women, children and people with disabilities, chronic diseases and mental illnesses.
Family doctors can be general practitioners, eligible doctors at hospitals or doctors of traditional Chinese medicine, the guideline states, adding that doctors at primary-level hospitals are also encouraged to join in.
Moreover, fees are jointly covered by the national medical insurance system, public funds for medical services, and the individuals receiving medical services.
Individualized services
To provide high-quality and efficient healthcare services, provinces and provincial-level municipalities and autonomous regions in China have developed individualized family doctor services.
Different from Lu's routine medical check, Chen in Huzhou City enjoys a different kind of family doctor service. Chen suffered a stroke last December, which left her paralyzed on the right side of her body. The family doctor visits her home regularly to monitor various health indicators and provide rehabilitation services.
Wenjiang District in Chengdu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, has come up with various ways of improving the family doctor services to win residents' confidence.
Specialists from major hospitals are invited to join the team of family doctors in Wenjiang District through workshops for senior doctors and joint clinics for chronic diseases. They are set to help township hospitals and community health service centers develop new projects and technologies, such as painless gastroscopy and laparoscopy.
As many as 77 specialists from top hospitals have so far joined in, maximizing the utilization of medical sources of secondary and tertiary medical and health institutions, said Shui Ping, who works at local health commission.
Tech comes into play
In north China's Tianjin Municipality, information technology powered by the internet is being employed to provide high-quality family doctor services.
For example, 266 grassroots hospitals have been integrated into an internet medical association, and chronic disease management centers have been set up in communities.
Family doctors use the information platform to manage diabetes patients in and out of the hospital for whole-cycle management, keep track of their blood sugar and accurately gauge their health and prescribe medicine.
Grassroots hospitals in Tianjin share information with higher-level hospitals, which can then participate in consultation and referral services.
"Through standardized management, patients' overall blood pressure and blood glucose levels have significantly improved. Consequently, they spend less money on buying medicine," said Wang Deshun, director of the community health service center at Zhongyang Town, Tianjin.
