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RACGP to expand training into China
Health authorities in China have proposed a partnership with the RACGP to help train new GPs as part of efforts to considerably increase the country’s primary care workforce.
RACGP President Dr Harry Nespolon described the proposed partnership as a ‘great sign of Australia being an international leader when it comes to the delivery of general practice’.
China is planning to train half a million new GPs within 11 years.
And the RACGP will play a role in that enormous undertaking.
The Shenzhen Municipal Community Health Association approached the RACGP to propose a partnership, under which the college will deliver education services and help establish primary healthcare training systems in the high-tech city.
The proposed partnership is expected to roll out later this year, with further growth anticipated.
RACGP President Dr Harry Nespolon told newsGP that China has a well-documented need for primary healthcare to complement its established hospitals.
‘The RACGP has been approached to assist with solutions to support the increased primary healthcare demands from a growing China. This is a great sign of Australia being an international leader when it comes to the delivery of general practice,’ he said.
‘The RACGP has a lot to offer to other countries developing the general practice specialty. Through its many long-established relationships with organisations in other countries, the RACGP has the opportunity to share experiences and continue to develop the specialty of general practice globally.
‘The partnership with the Shenzhen Municipal Community Health Association provides an opportunity for the RACGP and medical educators to be part of the program and share their knowledge and expertise, and to be part of and influence general practice in other settings.’
Shenzhen is a high-tech megacity bordering Hong Kong, with an estimated population of around 20 million.
The healthcare future for China’s high-tech megacity Shenzhen? More GPs.
China is dealing with a huge ageing population, which will bring with it more issues related to multimorbidity and chronic diseases.
At the 2017 National Party Conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that a key aspect of improving the nation’s health was to ‘strengthen the construction of grassroots medical and health service systems and the establishment of general practitioner teams’.
The nation of 1.3 billion currently has around 210,000 GPs.
At present, many Chinese people go directly to hospitals rather than go to a family doctor. Hospital queues are notoriously long in many cities.
Public hospitals currently get around two thirds of government health funding in China, and specialists greatly outnumber GPs, who make up only around 6% of all doctors.
Last year, a delegation of Chinese healthcare officials from Zhejiang province visited the RACGP’s Melbourne head office on a fact-finding mission.
Dr Hui Yang, China programs manager for Monash University’s Institute for Health and Clinical Education, told newsGP the delegation wanted to learn about further developing a primary care system.
‘In China, the primary care discipline has been identified as a key priority of healthcare system reform,’ he said. ‘[Primary care] is more efficient and cost-effective for the health system and has a better outcome for people’s health.
‘To visit the RACGP is one of the most important activities, and the aim is to understand how the RACGP works to establish standards of training, practice and examinations.’
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