The lack of community doctors has become a bottleneck in the development of community medical services, said political advisors attending their annual session in Beijing, as China has vowed to develop urban health care based on community facilities.

China at present has less than 1,000 community doctors, while the 500 million urban residents need at least 160,000 community doctors in line with minimum international standard, said Wang Debing, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body.

"Community-based health care will be a blank outline without enough qualified community doctors," said another CPPCC member Dai Xiuying, who blamed the longtime overlooking of the importance and related training of community doctors.

While delivering a government work report on March 5, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said, "We will improve the distribution of urban medical and health resources, focusing on developing community health care services and implementing measures for ensuring funding for them ..."

China's health care at community level and in rural areas has long suffered from the lack of doctors. About 80 percent of the two 2 million registered doctors are working in cities, among whom 80 percent are working in major hospitals, said advisors from the medical sector.

Many patients have to travel a long way to receive treatment since they can not enjoy satisfactory services at local clinics and hospitals, the advisors said.

To give an example, the advisors said that during a field investigation to a big hospital they found 88 percent patients were there because of the lack of confidence in local hospitals.

The advisors called on the government to attach importance to the training of community doctors and increase investment in this regard.

Source: Xinhua