Shanxi to integrate management of doctors at grassroots

Shanxi will integrate management over doctors in county-level public hospitals and township-level health centers, according to the province’s health and family planning commission.

The province recently issued guidelines on doctors’ management to reach a unified mechanism for arrangement, management and assessment of doctors at grassroots hospitals and health centers.

Each city in the province will have one or two pilots for the mechanism beginning this year.

The measure aims to relieve the shortage of doctors in counties and townships. Public hospitals at county-level are required to develop doctor teams in accordance with the hospitals’ functions and orientations.

Higher-level public hospitals will send doctors to help and train medical staff in understaffed township health centers. These health centers may also recruit doctors through county-level hospitals.

The province also proposes a shift system between doctors at county-level hospitals and township-level health centers.

Moreover, Shanxi plans a measure that will ask doctors in county-level public hospitals to work in township health centers, as a part in evaluating the professional ranks.