(Ecns.cn)--Families in Beijing will be able to enjoy 24-hour family doctor services in their residential areas by the end of 2012, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health on Sunday.
Under the policy, each family can choose their own family doctor team and sign a contract for services to be provided free of charge. In order to guarantee the quality of the services, each doctor team will be allowed to sign no more than 600 contracts.
Doctors will provide basic checkups for each resident once a year and give advice on healthcare according to their conditions. Some special groups, such as senior citizens and small children, will receive medical attention in their homes.
According to the bureau, each patient will have their own health documents and will not need to pay registration fees, such as those required by hospitals. However, they will need to pay for any prescribed treatments or medicines.
The government hopes the plan will encourage residents who have common diseases and chronic ailments to see doctors in grassroots medical institutions, which will help to mitigate congestion in large hospitals.
By the end of last August, there were 3,037 family doctor teams in Beijing that had signed contracts with 447,000 families. Nearly 150,000 residents comprising over 64,000 families in Dongcheng, Xicheng and Fengtai Districts of Beijing have piloted the family doctor services program.
