Boosting a Less Known Job

Du Xueping, Director of the Yuetan Community Healthcare Center in downtown Beijing's Xicheng District, has been involved in China's general practitioner (GP) trial program since it began.

As an important part of the country's medical reform, the introduction of a national GP system has been planned for almost 20 years. The Yuetan center is one of the first clinics in the country to trial the system.

"The trial program started in this center in 1994 and I came here in 1995," said Du, who used to be a cardiovascular specialist at Beijing's prestigious Fuxing Hospital.

"At the time, people didn't understand why I gave up a job in a big hospital to work in a small community center," Du said. "Even now, few people would choose to work in a community healthcare center. But based on my experience, community healthcare centers are actually more important for people's health than big hospitals."

A challenging choice

Community-based GPs in China mainly provide primary care, treating acute and chronic illnesses in community-level medical institutions, according to Du. They also provide preventive care for local residents.

When she worked at Fuxing Hospital, Du received many patients each day. Many of the patients traveled hours or even days from other cities and towns for treatment.

"Cardiovascular diseases are generally urgent and severe," Du said. "Many patients coming to me were close to death. They had to spend a lot of money on surgery and suffered a great deal. But a lot of this suffering would have been avoided if they were given proper advice and treatment from their local healthcare centers."

Du would often give less seriously ill patients advice on how to stay healthy simply by improving their lifestyles with exercise and a balanced diet.

"But when giving that sort of advice, I found that in a large hospital I wasn't able to follow up. Without monitoring, patients often fail to maintain a healthy lifestyle," said Du, who believes that regular communication and contact with patients can greatly improve the effectiveness of treatment.

Du then made the decision to go to work in a community healthcare center in order to get closer to her patients. After the Yuetan center, which is affiliated to Fuxing Hospital, started the GP trial program, Du volunteered to work as a GP there.