Free family doctors for all

Beijing residents will have access to free 24-hour family doctor services by the end of this year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health confirmed to the Global Times Sunday.

Ma Yanming, spokesman for the health bureau, said that the services will cover the city and families can choose and sign a contract with a family doctor's practice of their choosing.

"Families don't need to pay any registration fees, but still need to pay for medicines. Every 600 families will share one medical team," he told the Global Times yesterday.

A family doctor team is composed of a general practitioner, a nurse and a healthcare assistant. It will provide basic checkups and evaluations for residents, such as blood pressure checks, and give advice and guidance about healthcare.

"Due to the heavy work load of family doctor teams, only those who have difficulty walking will be able to get medical attention at home," Ma said.

Family doctor services will be open to all residents living in the capital, regardless of their household registration (hukou) status.

Residents have the right to stop services or change doctors if they are not satisfied with the doctors. However, foreigners have not been included in the plan yet.

The government hopes that the plan will encourage 70 percent of patients with chronic diseases and seniors over 65 years old to sign contracts with family doctors by the end of this year.

In addition, all community health service centers will extend their opening hours until 8 pm and provide 24-hour emergency services for the community's residents.

All the increased expenses from the out-of-hours services will be covered by the government's budget. Staff working for the extended hour services will be granted a subsidy of 17 yuan ($2.7) per hour on normal working days and 23 yuan per hour on weekends.

A member of staff, surnamed Lin, who works at Dongcheng district community service management center said that at the moment, community health service centers open to 6 pm Monday to Friday, and for half days at the weekend.

"We have launched a family doctor trial program in our district already, which has been welcomed by many families," Lin said yesterday.

Many residents say the idea is appealing, as it will make life easier, especially for older people who live alone.

"It will be good if a family doctor can come to my home to give me a regular health check, but I'm not sure whether one doctor and his team can deal with 600 people. How can they guarantee the quality of the services?" said Zhao Fanjun, 57, who lives in Chaoyang district.

Zhao said if she felt ill, she would normally go to a large hospital, rather than a community health center, as the medical treatment would be of a higher quality.

"No matter whether it's for an emergency or a regular illness, I always go to Chaoyang Hospital which has more medical resources and will provide better services. There are only three doctors in our community health service center, maybe fewer in some other centers, and they can't prescribe the same range of medicines as big hospitals can," Zhao said.

According to the China News Service, the government has taken some measures to encourage residents to see doctors in grassroots medical centers for common or chronic diseases, which will help to mitigate congestion in large hospitals.

China Radio International reported that it was planned that by 2015, nearly 30 percent of medical treatment should be dealt with at the community level.

By the end of August 2010, 3,037 family doctor teams in Beijing had signed contracts with 447,000 families. Family doctor services have been piloted in Dongcheng, Xicheng and Fengtai districts covering 150,000 residents in Beijing, said China News Service.