NHFPC Minister Li Bin’s speech at the meeting on medicine and education synergy to deepen clinical medicine talent cultivation reform

It’s of great significance to deepen medical personnel cultivation reform

China’s clinical medical personnel training system construction has made new developments in recent years, and a large number of medical talents have been cultivated. By the end of 2013, there were 7.21 million health workers nationwide, including 2.79 million (assistant) practicing doctors, offering strong support to safeguarding and improving public health. The college medical education reform has been deepened, post-graduation medical education has achieved important breakthroughs, continuing medical education has gradually improved, and general practitioner training efforts have been stepped up. But we also have to be aware that China’s current medical education and talents cultivation work cannot fully meet the needs of the health and family planning reform and development. Health personnel overall quality and structure are yet to be desired, and there are not enough qualified clinicians. Medical education quality needs to be improved, and basic medical and humanities education as well as interns in communities are not enough. Health professionals, particularly general practitioners, in communities are in short supply.

At present, with the advancement of economic and social development as well as deepened medical reform, as well as the increasing health needs of urban and rural residents, human resource problems have become an increasingly major bottleneck restraining medical development. It’s increasingly important and urgent to integrate medicine and education to deepen clinical medicine professional cultivation reform.

It is an inevitable requirement to deepen reform and take care of public education and health causes. Strengthening medicine and education synergy to deepen clinical medicine professionals cultivation reform and build a trustworthy clinician team is not only a fundamental requirement to realize the reform goal and solve public problems in getting medical treatment, but also a responsibility of deepening education system reform, upgrading modern education and enhancing human resources building. We should voluntarily put relevant work in the full context of comprehensively deepening health and education reform to ensure integral, systematic and coordinated reform; promote integration of medical education and health and family planning development; improve the standardized clinical medical personnel training system with Chinese characteristics; and offer human resource support for developing a health and family planning cause to the public’s satisfaction.

It is an inevitable requirement to follow the law of talent growth and cultivate high-quality talents in the field of clinical medicine. Medicine is a practical science, and qualified clinician training follows special medical education and talent cultivation laws featuring a long cycle, multiple periods and strong continuity. Medical professionals have to go through strict college medical education, standardized post-graduation education and lifetime continuing medical education. The last two phases are the only road for talent to become qualified clinicians. The “5+3+X” medical personnel training system focuses on both theoretical study and clinical practice training. It’s a major institutional innovation that follows common international education training methods and industrial practices but adapts to China's national conditions. Unswervingly promoting and perfecting the system will fundamentally improve the overall quality of China’s clinicians and produce more qualified clinical medical talents for the public.

It’s an inevitable requirement to upgrade medical and health service capacity at the community level and establish a grading diagnosis and treatment system. In 2013, medical and health institutes at the community level received a total of 4.32 billion patients, accounting for 59 percent of all nationwide. They have played an important role in dispersing patients and solving difficulties in seeking medical treatment. However, medical and health resources at the community level are in short supply, and inadequate medical personnel and low medical quality has not been improved. Health personnel with education at or above the junior college level at hospitals in towns and townships accounted for less than 23 percent. Medical practitioners, especially general practitioners, are in seriously short supply. At the same time, many doctors can’t win the public’s trust as they haven’t received standardized training and don’t have strong clinical diagnosis and treatment abilities. The NHFPC will carry out hierarchical diagnosis and treatment experiments next year to realize an orderly medical treatment for patients. It’s necessary to build a professional and trustworthy medical and health team at the community level, especially a general practitioner team, to build the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system. We have to focus on general practitioners, integrate medicine and education to deepen clinical medicine talent training reform, and realize consistent standards and evaluation for doctors at community and large hospitals. In this way, the public can get access to high-quality and low-cost medical service on hand.