Boosting a Less Known Job(4)

As an additional service, Zhang also answers residents' health-related questions and gives lectures on healthcare topics.

"Sometime people think GPs are able to treat only minor ailments such as colds," Zhang said. "Actually the scope of a GP's business is very broad. We don't suggest that people in emergency medical situations like heart attacks turn to us, but what we do is to prevent people from getting those urgent and severe diseases."

Du estimates that 60 percent of ailing people don't need to go to big hospitals. "Many patients exaggerate the symptoms of their diseases, which causes overcrowded hospitals in large cities and waste of medical resources," she said.

The Yuetan center's GP trial program has been a success. Local residents now make the center their first choice for help when suffering from illnesses and often drop in at the center for various other reasons, including asking for suggestions on diet, hygiene and long-term care.

In 1996, the Yuetan center received only 2,000 patients, but the number rocketed to 210,000 in 2010.

Despite this, Du admits the Yuetan center, as a pilot institution for training GPs, doesn't convey a sense of the state of the GP program in other parts of China.